Guidelines:

We adhere to the IACUC guidelines specified by the National Institutes of Health. For wildlife, guidelines specified by the American Society of Mammologists, the American Ornithological Council and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists must also be adhered to.

Training:

Prior to submitting an application, faculty and student researchers, as well as course instructors are required to complete animal research training.

  • All researchers are required to complete the “Working with the IACUC” Citi Program course and if applicable, the “Wildlife Research”, “Post Procedure Care of Mice and Rats in Research”, and “Post Procedure Monitoring”.
  • FLC students are also required to complete a hands-on animal research training course. This course must be completed at least 2 weeks prior to submitting an application to the IACUC.
    • For information regarding hands-on training, please contact Kami Parrish-Larson (970-247-7213 / parrishlarson_k@fortlewis.edu) or Amy Benson (970-247-7029 / abenson@fortlewis.edu)

Procedures Involving Animals:

  • Unless provided with explicit written permission from the IACUC, students are not allowed to collect blood from subjects, administer anesthesia, give injections or euthanize subjects. These activities must be performed by faculty. Students may be granted permission to perform these activities if their skills have been demonstrated and determined to be acceptable by an appropriate supervisor.
  • All invasive, disruptive or manipulative work (e.g. blood collection, euthanasia) must be performed outside of the animal room and may not be done in the presence of other animals.
  • Proposed student projects will be evaluated on the degree of pain and suffering inflicted upon subjects relative to the contribution of the proposed work to the body of knowledge in the subject area. This will be evaluated with the following criteria:
    • Will the work be published in a peer-reviewed journal?
    • Will it positively contribute to a faculty mentor’s ongoing research program?
    • Is the research significant enough to justify the anticipated pain and suffering?
    • Are there alternatives to the protocol or can the number of subjects be reduced?
    • What methods can be used to reduce pain or distress of animal subjects?
    • Applications submitted to the IACUC should address the three R’s of research with living subjects: reduction, replacement and refinement.