ABSTRACT
One of the IACUC’s principal roles is to ensure that animals used in research, testing, and teaching are used humanely by trained staff. Although IACUC review of proposals describing planned animal activity is an important mechanism for meeting this role, observation of animal use provides the most direct assurance that these goals are attained. At some institutions, animals are never removed from the animal facility as all activities are performed within animal holding or procedure rooms. Nevertheless, it is common for animals to be transported from the animal facility to an investigator’s laboratory for experimental use. While animal resource personnel can readily observe the appropriateness of activities conducted within the animal facility, this task becomes signicantly more difcult, especially at large institutions, when animal research is conducted in an investigator’s laboratory.
