EMORY UNIVERSITY
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Briarcliff Campus
1256 Briarcliff Road, NE
Bldg A, Room 421-S
Atlanta, Georgia 30306
Phone: 404-712-0720 Fax: 404-727-8452
Email: IACUC@emory.edu
Web Site: (Case Sensitive) http://www.emory.edu/IACUC

June 29, 2005

Dear Colleague:

Re. IACUC 90% animal usage policy

The University is required by federal regulation and our accreditation standards to track and limit animal use to the number of animals authorized in approved protocols (IACUC Handbook, OLAW). To enable compliance with these expectations, the Division of Animal Resources (DAR) has the capability to conduct a monthly analysis of animal usage for each approved protocol.

Beginning September 1, 2005, the IACUC has instructed the DAR to notify investigators when 90% of the animals authorized on any approved protocol have been acquired, whether through purchase or breeding. Depending upon the pace and schedule of research, persons may elect to disregard the courtesy notice or act to modify the existing protocol to add animals. In extreme cases where the authorized full allotment of animals are acquired, the principal investigator will be notified accordingly and additional animal orders and continued breeding will be prohibited until the animal numbers are revised via the protocol modification process.

DAR will send a separate correspondence that will address procedural matters. For example, methods used to tabulate rodents produced from breeding colonies, advice on carrying over animals from an old to a new protocol, and best practices for completing the modification form will be among the subjects addressed.

These specific procedures do not necessarily apply to tracking nonhuman primate use at Yerkes. The historical procedures used at Yerkes will remain in effect, in this case.

Sincerely,
Samuel H. Speck, Ph.D.
IACUC Chair

Citation:
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Handbook, 2nd edition, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, NIH, 2002, p. 153:
“…it is incumbent upon an institution to establish mechanisms to monitor and document the number of animals acquired and used in approved activities…Many institutions have automated tracking systems that will alert an appropriate individual when an investigator has reached a preset percentage (e.g., 80-90%) of the animals approved for a specific project, and can prevent ordering animals in excess of the number approved.”