Investigator responsibility

It is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator conducting research using animal studies to make sure personnel conducting research have completed the necessary training prior to starting work with vertebrate animals. Once these trainings have been completed, then the amendment to add new personnel to the animal protocol should be initiated and submitted for review. If lab personnel being added to the amendment have not completed the necessary trainings or received their Occupational Health Surveillance System (OHSS) clearance, the approval of the amendment is delayed since once the review process has begun, the amendment cannot be withdrawn or revised during that process.

IACUC currently requires CITI training courses be renewed (repeated) every three years. Personnel listed on an IACUC protocol should remain current with all required training. Personnel who are not current with required training should not handle animals until the necessary training has been completed. OHSS clearance is also currently required to be renewed every three years unless the occupational health provider has specified a different assessment timeline. If a person listed on a protocol does not handle live vertebrate animals at any point, then an OHSS clearance is not required for that individual.

If you are interested in using one of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station (NAES) field laboratories, approval to use those facilities needs to be obtained during the planning stages of your project. Please contact Scott Huber at shuber@unr.edu to verify that the NAES resources are appropriate to meet your research and teaching aims and obtain all of the necessary approvals for their use before submitting your IACUC protocol.

Use the investigator toolkit to find resources relating to your responsibilities in animal studies.