8 Tuesday, May 5, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com PETA institutions are rare because insti- From page 1 tutions are usually able to address incidents successfully and take ap- propriate actions to prevent recur- injected a rabbit with an unauthor- rence," he wrote. ized anesthetic that damaged its ear Kara Gavin, UMHS director of and eye so severely that it had to be public relations, said the University euthanized. paid back the $1.4 million in federal Chandra also blamed the Univer- grants last year after it discovered sity for a violation of federal guide- the billing mistake and cited a soft- lines, in which the University billed ware malfunction as the source of the NIH $1.4 million for experiments the problem. that were no longer approved by the Along with PETA's allegations, University Committee on Use and Animalearn, the educational division Care of Animals - the University's of the American Anti-Vivisection So- internal oversight committee. ciety, released a report titled "Dying In response to Chandra's allega- to Learn"onApr.27,whichexpressed tions, UMHS issued a statement that concern over how some universities said the injuries reported by PETA - including the University of Michi- were all "rare and isolated events, gan - use animals from shelters in not routine occurrences" and that their laboratory experiments. the incidents were "identified and The state of Michigan allows the remedied swiftly." selling of animalsto research facilities Additionally, UMHS stated that by Class B dealers, which are licensed the information PETA cited was al- by the United States Department of ready known by the University and Agriculture to buy and sell animals policies have been appropriately cor- not bred on the dealers' property. rected to prevent future protocol vio- In its report, Animalearn said it lations. seeks to stop the use of animals sold Don Ralbovsky, an NIH spokes- from Class B dealers for educational person, wrote in an e-mail interview courses in research institutions, with that most research institutions han- an overarching goal of eliminating dle such incidents internally. the use of animals in laboratory re- "Compliance actions against search altogether. Between September 2004 and October 2008, the University bought 94 dogs and four cats from R&R Re- search Breeder Inc., a Class B dealer, for use in medical education ser- vices. In March UMHS ended the practice of using live dogs for sur- gery practice in the University Medi- cal School after it was scrutinized by the Physicians Committee for Re- sponsible Medicine -- a non-profit organization that promotes ethical research and experiment methods. In addition, officials in Mont- calm County voted last week to end a deal providing cats and dogs from the local shelter to R&R Research Breeder Inc. Although both animal rights groups were concerned over the University's treatment and purchase of animals for laboratory experi- ments, Chandra said an even bigger issue is the lax behavior of the over- sight committees, which approve the protocol for experiments with ani- mal testing at universities. "The thing that strikes us is that all of these really cruel experiments are being approved by the oversight committee, which tells us that the oversight committee isn't doing its job," she said. U' responds to swine flu BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Visit michigandaily.com for updates throughout the week Officials plan ways to protect students from pandemic By JASMINE ZHU Daily NEWS EDITOR With the H1N1 swine flu out- break spreading to areas as close as Livingston County, the Uni- versity and the state of Michigan are takingnecessary precautions to protect students. As of Apr. 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion confirmed Michigan's first case of swine flu in Livingston County. A second case in Ottawa County was confirmed a day later. The two confirmed cases are part of a probable 47 cases of swine flu in the state of Michi- gan, according to Michigan offi- cials. As the flu spreads; state offi- cials are recommending that schools facing probable cases of swine flu should be closed for a week. All 24 schools in the nearby Plymouth-Canton district were closed yesterday and today, due to a suspected case of swine flu from a 16-year old high school student in the area. On Apr. 28, University admin- istrators met and decided that. all three of the University's cam- puses would not permit any Uni- versity-sponsored programs to travel to Mexico at this time. Dr. Robert Winfield, chief health officer of the Univer- sity and director of the Univer- sity Health Service, said that all University programs bound for Mexico have been cancelled, including a University program set to leave the first week of May for Oaxaca, Mexico. "We are strongly advising stu- dents, as is the CDC, to not go to Mexico at this time," Winfield said. According to the CDC, as of yesterday there were 279 con- firmed cases of swine flu infec- tion within the United States, including one death in Texas. As of last Wednesday, the World Health Organization has classified swine flu as being in Phase 5. Phase 5 and 6 represent widespread human infection and are classified as pandemics. Winfield said that, theoreti- cally, the University could cancel programs in a high-risk situation and bring students back home. He said that the University brought back three students in China duringthe SARS epidemic in 2003, which had a 60 percent death rate. But he added that, as of now, the World Health Organization is not advising any travel restric- tions or closure of borders. "We are past the tipping point of containing the flu," he said. There are currently three University students in Mexico, one of whom the University has not been able to contact. The other two have confirmed to the University that they are doing fine. None of the three students are on a University-sponsored program. The incubation period for swine flu is seven days, which means that the students leaving Mexico could still develop the flu within a week. "They could bring the disease back, and it could be mild for them, but it could be terrible for someone else," Winfield said. According to Winfield, the guidelines cite that if a person has returned from Mexico with- in seven days and has an upper respiratory infection, cough, sore throat, runny nose, diar- rhea, muscle aches or a fever over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, he or she may have swine flu. If a person suspects that he or she has been infected with swine flu, it is recommended that the individual stays home and avoids going out in public areas. If the person is very sick, then he or she should see a doc- tor for an evaluation. There is no timeline as to when the University will reopen its sponsored programs in Mexico. The situation is being reviewed on a weekly basis. "The situation is very fluid - it's changing literally by the hour," Winfield said. SICK OF, THE DORMS? CAN'T FIND A PLACE TO LIVE? Visit michigandaily.com/classifieds to see all of the great houses and apartments Ann Arbor has to offer on a convenient map! Also be sure to check out the Classified Pages for other great properties.