Supplemental Resources and Disaster preparedness
Visit the IACUC website for a full list of The University of Toledo's animal research guidelines.
DLAR Supplemental Resources
Disaster Preparedness
According to NIH OLAW, facilities must have a disaster plan to prepare for unexpected conditions that could jeopardize the health and wellbeing of personnel and animals. The facility should coordinate with investigators to identify irreplaceable animal populations and institutional needs and resources.
Investigators should take steps to mitigate the potential impact of a disastrous event on his/her research and data. Investigators are encouraged to cryopreserve unique animal strains when possible and should consider these factors:
- Are these animals available elsewhere? Did you share these animals with another lab/colleague?
- How long have these animals been on the research project?
- For animals on a current research project:
- Will the variability introduced by a disaster and evacuation potentially affect the data such that evacuation of the animals will not save the research anyway?
- Is it a small enough study that evacuating a limited number of animals would allow for enough to complete the study (small n)?
- Investigators are responsible for the identification and marking of prioritized animals and keeping those labels up to date.
Investigators with irreplaceable animals or animals necessary for critical research should collaborate with the DLAR staff to label those cages for easy identification during a disastrous event. A consistent, obvious, and easy to maintain identification system should be used. PIs interested in cryopreservation should contact DLAR for more information.