“…In light of this mandate, it was somewhat surprising to the research community that OLAW has not supported the use of literature references alone as justification for deviations from the new housing recommendation for a breeding female. Indirectly, this requires the generation of new data within each institution, the acquisition of which is in apparent contradiction to the mandate against unnecessary duplication of research, especially given the available literature on the topic (5–12). Although performance criteria may vary to some degree between different institutions due to a variety of factors (e.g., environment, husbandry practices, altitude, humidity), the likely range of variation contraindicates engaging in individual studies at each institution on both practical and ethical grounds.…”