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Destructive Sampling

The Division of Birds receives frequent requests for destructive sampling of museum specimens for scientific purposes, e.g. - (1) skin, muscle, feather, bone, or cartilage samples for genetic studies, (2) feather, tissue, and bone samples for toxicological or stable isotope investigations, and (3) whole specimens for dissection or the removal of organs for anatomical studies. A limited amount of judicious sampling is permitted for legitimate research programs. All researchers requesting destructive sampling from the NMNH avian collections are required to comply with the following guidelines.

Requests

An informal inquiry via phone, letter, or e-mail may be used to determine which taxa are available and other information about specimens in our collection. Formal requests must be made in writing on institutional letterhead. Requests from pre- and postdoctoral students must be co-signed by the head of the student's laboratory or by the student's graduate advisor, who accepts full responsibility for compliance with the terms of the destructive sampling. We strongly recommend that permission for destructive sampling be requested before grant or thesis proposals are submitted. Requests should address the following:

• Brief Description of Research - Include the purpose, techniques, gene(s) to be studied, lab facilities, investigators involved and their experience, sources of funding, and expected significance of the study. Please specify other sources of specimens that will be sampled (e.g., museums or tissue collections). Will the applicant collect specimens for the study?
• List of Material Requested - Please specify taxa, number of individuals, specimen numbers and/or localities (if relevant), tissue type(s), and the amount of material needed
• Evidence of Reciprocal Benefit - Museum collections are expensive and time-consuming to build and maintain, and are depleted by destructive sampling. We encourage requesters to support the growth, maintenance and accessibility of these collections. Please describe your efforts in this regard. Applicants associated with labs or institutions that do not maintain museum collections may wish to consider depositing voucher specimens at NMNH. Applicants who cannot reciprocate in kind may be charged a replacement fee to help defray the cost of acquiring and maintaining the collection.
• Permit Verification - Please provide copies of USDA and/or USFWS permits required for you to handle requested samples. A USDA Restricted Material permit is usually necessary for US labs if the requested material originated outside the US. CITES or other permits may be required from USFWS, especially if material is to be exported. Information on USDA requirements can be found by calling (301) 734-4952 or visiting http://www.aphis.usda.gov on the Worldwide Web.
• Shipping Instructions - Please provide detailed instructions including mailing address, contact phone numbers, and e-mail address.

Criteria for Approval

Each request will be evaluated by Curators associated with the Division of Birds (R. Terry Chesser, Mercedes F. Foster, Gary R. Graves, and Storrs L. Olson). Approval will be based on the following criteria:

• Scientific value and feasibility of the project, rarity of specimens, and potential for replacement
• Qualifications of the investigators
• Evidence of sufficient lab facilities and funding
• Approval of original collector(s)
• Proportion of samples being collected by applicants
• Evidence that the applicants are contributing to museum collections by collecting, properly documenting and depositing voucher specimens in collections where they are available to others or by supporting such collections financially.

Terms

Transfer or loan of specimens (including tissues) are made under the following conditions:

• Specimens (including tissues) will be used only for the purposes stated in the Description of Research. The Description of Research may not be amended nor may the material be used for other purposes without written permission from the Division of Birds, NMNH.
• Neither the specimens nor samples (or any part, extract, or product thereof) may be transfer red or lent to a third party, or another laboratory, without written consent from Division of Birds, NMNH.
• Raw data associated with the computerized specimen record (locality, GIS coordinates, date of collection, collector, etc.) will not be supplied to, or made available on any publicly available data base (digital, electronic, or hard copy) without written consent from the Division of Birds, NMNH.
• The permanent data record of destructively sampled specimens will be amended to include the name of sample recipient. Also any publications will be appended to the electronic data record.
• No commercial use will be made of, nor license or patent applied for on the samples or any information or data derived from them without written consent from NMNH. In some cases, commercial or restrictive use of the samples would violate terms of the permits under which they were collected.
• We ask that usable samples (cloned genomic DNA, PCR-amplified mtDNA, syringes, slides, etc.) be returned to us for storage in the collection or at the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics, where they can be made available to other researchers.
• GenBank accession numbers and raw stable isotope data must be reported to the Division of Birds, NMNH. These data will be appended to the official specimen record.
• The "USNM" (the preferred acronym of the National Museum of Natural History) will be explicitly acknowledged in each publication that was based in part or entirely on raw data derived from NMNH specimens. Voucher specimen numbers will be acknowledged in each publication that results from research on or other use of the samples. This may be done in table or text format.
• The Division of Birds requests one hard copy of any article, an electronic copy (ie PDF), or one copy of any book that results from the use of our material.
• Any other stipulations made by the Division of Birds, USNM, as a condition of a particular transfer or exchange.
• All responsible parties must sign and date a letter of agreement specifying the terms of the transfer (tissues) or loan (partially dissected or whole specimens).

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