University of Wisconsin-Madison

Policy Number: 2005-029 [PDF]

Adoption Date: 04/08/2005

Effective Date: 04/08/2005

Expiration Date: ongoing

Review Date: Annually

Oversight of Animal Care Performed by Research Staff

Purpose: For scientific and staffing reasons, researchers or investigative staff often assume responsibility for some aspects of animal husbandry. For example, animals may be on a special diet, on a regulated watering schedule, or on an extended cage-cleaning cycle, which investigative staff may manage more effectively for scientific reasons. UW-Madison must assure that animals are cared for appropriately, and provide instructions for actions that must be taken to protect animal welfare.

Policy: To ensure that communication is open and that animals receive appropriate and timely care, husbandry plans must be developed by research staff and professional animal care staff in cooperation to meet the following standards:

1. Research staff that perform husbandry procedures (standard or otherwise) must document them in the same manner as professional animal care staff, including, but not limited to:
   1. Description of task
   2. Time and date performed
   3. Initialed by individual performing task
2. Husbandry procedures that differ from standard procedures must be outlined in detail in an approved animal use protocol. Such procedures could include:
   1. Restricted feeding
   2. Regulated watering
   3. Provision of special diets (e.g., powdered diet, agar diet)
   4. Specialized environmental enrichment
3. In some cases, professional animal care staff performs some husbandry procedures, while investigative staff performs others (e.g., care staff change cages and research staff provide feed). In these cases:
   1. There must be a prominently posted log sheet, enabling daily care staff to determine that research staff is performing husbandry tasks in a timely manner.
   2. Emergency contact numbers must be available for animal care personnel to contact research personnel, including contacts for non-business hours.
   3. It is the responsibility of the animal care staff to contact research staff if critical animal care duties (e.g., feeding, watering) that have been assumed by the research staff have not been performed or documented. Research staff must respond within 4 hours.
   4. Animal care staff must document when they have attempted to contact research staff.
   5. If there is no response from investigative staff, animal care staff should contact the facility veterinarian or the veterinarian on call for guidance about what husbandry procedures they should perform.

References: This form: ‘Log Sheet for Husbandry Duties Performed by Research Staff’ ( PDF | MS Word | WordPerfect ) is a suggestion; other forms can be acceptable.

Prepared by: J. Welter

Reference Minutes: 04/08/2005