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At CU Boulder, experiments and instruction involving animal use are based on three major principles:

1. CU Boulder reaffirms that the use of animals and animal tissues constitutes fundamental and legitimate aspects of the University's academic mission.
2. CU Boulder encourages the utilization, whenever possible, of alternatives to the use of animals in research, and welcomes the search for alternatives.
3. CU Boulder acknowledges both legal and moral responsibility for the welfare and humane treatment of animals.

In addition, CU Boulder reaffirms its commitment to abide by established federal standards of humane animal care. For further details, please see our Policy Statement page.

If your research or teaching project involves the use, manipulation, breeding, or care of vertebrate animals and their embryos, you must seek IACUC review. Please see IACUC Guideline #8 "When a Protocol is Required"  and contact the IACUC office. If confirmed you will need to fill out a protocol application well in advance of your desired project start date. We recommend two or three months in advance for researchers that are new to animal research work.

CU Boulder's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the Attending Veterinarian oversees the University's animal program, facilities and procedures. The IACUC's primary functions are to:

1. Review all animal use protocols before any project can be started
2. Conduct semi-annual inspections of animal and/or satellite facilities
3. Set reasonable schedules for the correction of any identified deficiencies noted in the animal facilities or program
4. Provide advice and counsel to the Institutional Official in all matters involving animal use
5. Ensure appropriate training for animal caretakers, investigators, and animal researchers

The committee reviews animal use protocols for research/teaching projects and helps plan animal facility projects. IACUC is authorized to suspend any activity involving animals if such activity is deemed inappropriate, inhumane or not in accord with the approved protocol.

The committee consists of faculty, staff, administration and the local community. By Public Health Service (PHS) regulation, IACUC must include at least: the attending veterinarian, a practicing scientist experienced in animal research, a non-scientist, and a member not affiliated with the University.

CU Boulder complies with all applicable laws and regulations related to use of animals in research, including the and the , among others. Compliance is verified through review of submitted animal protocols, inspections of facilities/research projects and through formal investigations by the IACUC. Please see our Regulations and Policies page to see other documentation and guidelines related to animal care and use that CU Boulder follows.

Animal research has played a crucial role in the advancement of scientific knowledge in modern society. For example, almost every major medical advance of the past century (including veterinary medicine) depended on the use of animals in research.

Some biomedical advances made possible by animal research include:

• Immunization against polio, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, hepatitis
• Broad-spectrum antibiotics
• Blood transfusions
• Radiation therapy and chemotherapy for cancer
• Open-heart surgery
• Insulin for management of diabetes
• Kidney dialysis
• Microsurgery to reattach severed limbs
• Surgical treatment for atherosclerosis
• Medications to control epileptic seizures
• Vaccination of animals against distemper, rabies, anthrax, tetanus and feline leukemia
• Treatment for cancers in pet animals
• Control of heartworm infection in dogs
• Treatment of arthritis in dogs

In addition, research on animals has contributed significantly to saving some endangered animals from extinction.

1. Take the required online CITI Program courses as outlined on our Training page on this website.
2. Enroll in the Occupational Health Program (includes being cleared by the Occupational Health Nurse).
3. Your PI must submit an amendment adding you to their active protocol. The PI must also attach your training documentation to the protocol. (For individuals without experience working with a particular species or conducting particular procedures, PI must indicate how the individual will be trained in the documentation.)
4. Make an appointment with the facility manager for facility orientation, ask your PI for this information.

NOTE: Your individual lab should train you further on lab-specific procedures, and update your training documentation as that happens.

Anyone who directly handles, uses, cares for, or holds an active protocol involving vertebrate animals needs to take the training (e.g. Principle Investigators, post docs, students, staff etc.)   See our training page for specific information.

The Office of Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) administers the Occupational Health & Safety Training Program for employees and students who may be exposed to health risks as part of their jobs or research activities at CU Boulder. You must sign up in advance to enroll in this training.

Your supervisor in the lab must submit an amendment adding you to an existing animal protocol and/or multiple protocols. Note: Your supervisor should also attach your training documentation to the amendment before submitting. You are not approved to work with animals until your PI or lab manager receives approval from the IACUC.

Approved applications are valid for the specified project for a period of three years. Interim (annual) renewal submissions are required in eProtocol 30 to 60 days prior to end of year one and two. You will receive automated reminder emails from the Key Solutions System.

In promoting the strategy of Reduction Involved in Quality Animal Research, labs may share the use of blood, fluid or tissue. In order to share tissue etc between labs, you must contact the EH&S office (Environmental Health & Safety).

Before aquiring access to the facilities, you must successfully complete the IACUC and Occupational Health trainings.  In addition, your PI must add you to an approved protocol. Once these preliminary steps have been completed, you may then submit a  with the OAR Deptartment. OAR will contact you to arrange an orientation at the facility.

An Incident report form should be filled out and submitted to the IACUC via the eProtocol system if there is ever a situation of an unexpected outcome in research, or an event that adversely affects the health or wellbeing of non-human vertebrate animals used in research or teaching. 

The Incident Report form must be submitted within 72 hours of the incident.

For immediate medical care for animals, contact the CU Boulder Veterinarian at UCB.Veterinarian@colorado.edu.

You may contact the attending Veterinarian. For additional resources:

•  . This covers proper methods for aseptic surgery, survival surgery, pre-op and post-op monitoring, and general daily animal care, among many other topics. CU Boulder adheres to the Guide.
•  .
• Veterinary Anesthetic and Analgesic Formulary
• Injection Volumes

The IACUC Office can answer your questions regarding forms, deadlines, specific protocol questions, animal tracking, training documentation, or direct you to the appropriate party.

Contact the UCB Veterinarian for questions related to animal health, veterinary care, procedures, or animal health concerns.

Contact the IACUC Director or the IACUC Chair for any other questions.

Contact Environmental Health and Safety, and your email or call will be directed to the most useful party:

ehs@colorado.edu
Ph: 303-492-6025

Since a primary function of the IACUC is to ensure the humane treatment of animals, any suspected mistreatment should be reported immediately to either the University Veterinarian,  IACUC Director or the Chair of the IACUC (see Contact Us). All reports will be held in strict confidence and addressed immediately. If you report a concern anonymously we will not be able to respond to you with the outcome, but understand that every concern raised is addressed by the IACUC.

Read about CU Boulder's Guidelines and Procedures for Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct. Section IV, D pertinent to reporting animal welfare concerns.

NOTE: In order to publish, even if it is determined an IACUC approved field protocol is not necessary, documentation and/or a waiver form is required to be kept on file in the IACUC Office.

“Field study” means any study conducted on free-living wild animals in their natural habitat (e.g. capture and release, banding), which does not involve an invasive procedure, and which does not harm or materially alter the behavior of the animals under study."  Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) states: “Studies with the potential to impact the health or safety of personnel or the animal’s environment may need IACUC oversight, even if described as purely observational or behavioral.” 

Additional information can be found on the USDA website for .

Contact the IACUC Director at althea.lantron@colorado.edu to determine if your study requires an IACUC review.

Go to our Protocol Submission page, and look at the directions for submitting a new or renewal protocol. Usually, once a Principle Investigator has received a grant score that will probably get funded, that is the appropriate time to submit an animal use protocol. The protocol review process can take one, two, sometimes three months to complete, so it is recommended to submit as early as possible to ensure approval before your expected research start timeline. Original (new) protocols are reviewed and approved at the monthly IACUC meetings. At the very least, you must submit at least 3 weeks prior to the IACUC meeting scheduled before you expect to begin animal work.

See the guidance on our webpage here for tips and helpful resources for putting together your protocol application as well as the homepage for meeting dates and submission deadlines.

Send an email to IACUCoffice@colorado.edu indicating that your research is no longer active, and let us know the status of your laboratory animals. You can submit this anytime during the three year life of your animal use protocol, if you have completed your research or did not receive funding, or you can submit it at the end of the three year lifespan of your protocol. 

Generally, animals at all live stages after birth are counted as individuals. Exceptions are smaller-sized community species such as medaka or zebrafish where the number of adults may be estimated based upon tank size and density.

Animals are counted and deducted from the approved protocol at the point of first use.

1. How do I count animals purchased from a vendor or imported?   Animals are deducted from the protocol at the time of the order, and that figure is adjusted to reflect that number of animals that arrive alive from a commercial vendor or other source.   
2. How do I count animals in an in-house breeding colony? All breeding colony animals produced must be counted, even if only a sub-set of those animals were used for actual experimentation because all of the animals (males AND females, desirable genotypes AND undesirable genotypes) were generated  for the purpose of research.  New animals in a breeding colony should be counted at the point of ‘first use,’ meaning upon weaning, use in an experiment, or use in accordance with the protocol.  Animals that spontaneously die of natural causes prior to weaning are not counted or deducted from a protocol.

Examples of “First-Use” in the context of a breeding colony

• A litter is born and genotyped. All but two individuals will be euthanized. Since genotyping is a procedure, the entire litter is counted against the protocol.
• A litter is born, raised to weaning age, and weaned.  Animals are counted when weaned. 

To delete personnel from the protocol who are involved in one or more of the procedures, it is recommended you delete them from each procedure individually. If you have several procedures and use the bulk delete function, it will scan all the procedures and significantly increase the response time.

If you have trouble using this feature or removing personnel from the protocol, please contact the IACUC office.

Per the IACUC policy, applicants must have completed all required CITI training (and/or required surgical training if applicable), completed the eRA DEPA form, and have been added to the approved protocol. To save time and accelerate the approval process, please ensure you have met all requirements prior to submitting the facility access request form.

Note: the eRA DEPA form must be renewed/resubmitted each year.

For personnel to appear in the system, they must have first completed the OHS training. Once completed, OHS will add their name to the eProtocol system where you will then be able to find their name and add them to your protocol in the personnel section.