Purpose
Public Health Service (PHS) Policy states that animals must be counted in the protocol without regard to the age of the animals. If animals are bred for the purpose of research, testing, or training purposes, the animals must be counted toward the protocol even if they are not “used” for an experimental, testing, or training procedure.
Action
1. At the next cage change after a litter is born, the Center for Comparative Medicine (CCM) will provide a weaning card with the number of animals that were born in the litter. Research personnel must then enter this number into InfoEd as an order for unused pups. This will automatically delete this number of animals from the authorized amounts for each protocol.
2. If a pre-weaned animal is genotyped, found to be inappropriate for an experiment, and subsequently euthanized, the animal must be counted as being used toward the protocol.
3. If an animal is euthanized before weaning but was bred for the purpose of being used for research, testing, or training activities, the animal must be counted as being used toward the protocol.
4. If a pre-weaned animal has any other experimental procedures performed other than genotyping- including behavioral studies- that animal must be counted toward the total number of animals used on the protocol.
Effective Dates: June 4, 2026 through June 30, 2029
This policy has been approved by a majority vote of IACUC members.