Useful Flexibilities for Animal Care and Use Programs to Comply with the PHS Policy During the COVID-19 Pandemic
As we continue
to address the effects of COVID-19 and as some states and institutions are
considering reopening, we would like to share some administrative flexibilities
that NIH is providing to research institutions with laboratory animal programs.
These flexibilities are
meant to assure personnel safety and animal welfare while enabling research
personnel to prioritize and preserve research efforts. Some of these can be
useful in reducing administrative burden, too.
My colleagues
with the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), Drs. Catharine Pritchard, Nicolette Petervary, and
Neera Gopee, described these administrative flexibilities in their recent
contribution to Laboratory Animal Science Professional
(available on the OLAW website).
If you’d like more information to help your animal program during this pandemic,
please visit OLAW’s frequently updated COVID-19
webpage for additional resources.
FAQs were also recently updated last week.
Here are some
highlights:
OLAW wants to
ensure Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) can continue
functioning during the pandemic, while also promoting a safe environment for
all. To this end, OLAW is temporarily granting waivers to semiannual
inspections, and the article describes the process for requesting these waivers.
The remaining flexibilities presented here are always available to institutions
but may be particularly useful during pandemics.
Virtual is
doable. One flexibility is that IACUCs...
Source: NIH Extramural Nexus - Category: Research Authors: Mike Lauer Tags: blog Open Mike Animal Welfare COVID-19 OLAW Source Type: funding
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