Required training
The Guide (PDF) stipulates two fundamental program participation areas requires for all persons who use live vertebrate animals, whether they are captive or in field work settings, as shown below. Likewise, these same requirements exist for persons who care for or use agricultural animals in research and teaching as detailed in the Ag Guide (PDF).
CITI Program training for animal care and use
Online training to meet the minimum requirements by federal regulations as well as training for species-specific modules and different roles relating to animal use.
Occupational Health Surveillance System
Online risk assessment and medical review process for students and faculty participating in hands-on work with animals and Biosafety Level-3 workers.
In addition, animal use personnel are trained in Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) policies and in facility and species-specific standard operating procedures. An in-person orientation is also required for all persons being added to protocols for animal work. Please contact Animal Resources or, for agricultural species, the supervisory personnel at the NAES Experiment Stations, to coordinate this in-person orientation and training. Depending on the scope of work, additional training courses through Animal Resources or CABNR may be required prior to starting your work, including awareness training for any pertinent zoonotic diseases.
For research that involves the use of hazardous chemicals, biological agents or radiological materials, the Principal Investigator will need to contact Environmental Health & Safety to take the necessary training courses prior to beginning work. In some instances, the Institutional Biosafety Committee will need to review and approve the work if it involves other biological materials (ex. etiological agents, toxins, and genetically modified animals) and similarly, the Institutional Review Board must review and approve work if it also involves human subjects.
If a researcher does not possess a documentation template to record personnel training, please contact IACUC for a template. Please note that it is a campus requirement to have verifiable records of training in these and related topics per the University Administrative Manual (6,513: Policy on Training for Research Compliance & Compliance with Environmental Health & Safety).
Who needs an animal protocol?
If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you will need to submit an IACUC protocol to the committee for review and will need to take all the applicable CITI training modules. If there are any other questions on this topic, please contact IACUC.
- Will I be using live vertebrate animals as a University employee, student or visitor, whether for teaching or research purposes?
- Will I be requesting another institution make custom antibodies, perform a surgery, take tissue samples, administer drugs or reagents, or generate a transgenic or knockout animal for my project needs at the University?
- Does my work include trapping or netting of any wild vertebrate animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles or amphibians?
- Does my work involve my handling of the animals, whether in captivity or in field settings?
- In cases of field investigations, will my work involve invasive procedures, harm or materially alter the behavior of the animals under study?
- Will vertebrate animals be euthanized on my behalf for my scientific research, teaching or testing needs?