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Transportation of Animals Between the NCI-Frederick and the NIH Bethesda
The NCI Lab Animal Sciences Program -
Bethesda (LASP-Bethesda) has received questions lately about the requirements
for shipping animals between the NCI-Frederick and the NIH Bethesda Campus. One
of the LASP-Bethesdas main goals is to facilitate the investigator in their
research while ensuring adherence to all regulations and guidelines covering the
use of animals in research. Therefore, the LASP-Bethesda consulted the NIH
Office of Animal Care and Use (OACU) to verify the minimum requirements for its
NCI investigators. The following policy was developed to address this
issue:
NCI-ACUC POLICY:
Any
investigator interested in using or transporting animals between the
NCI-NCI-Frederick and the NIH Bethesda Campus must submit a NCI Animal Study
Proposal (ASP) form to both the NCI-Frederick ACUC in Frederick and the NCI-ACUC
in Bethesda for review and approval. Animals may not be transported between
these two locations until the ASP is approved by both ACUCs.
RATIONALE:
The
NCI-Frederick in Frederick and the institutes of the NIH Bethesda Campus
(including NCI) are considered, from an animal care and use program perspective,
to be different "Institutes" as organizationally structured. The two areas are
covered by different assurance statements with the Office of Laboratory Animal
Welfare and are reviewed, site visited, and assessed as separate and distinct
animal use programs by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of
Laboratory Animal Care International. The fact that the two areas are considered
to be separate, requires that animals used at both locations are to be covered
under both a NCI-ACUC and a NCI-Frederick ACUC approved ASP. The ASP must
describe the animal use activities to be conducted at each site with a clear
description of the objectives, the rationale for animal use, the number
justification, etc. The same ASP form can be submitted to both ACUCs for review,
as long as the experimental section clearly describes what procedures are to be
performed in each location, animal holding facility, laboratory, etc. The
transportation issues must also be clearly addressed in the
ASP.
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