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I. Purpose

Investigators and other personnel shall be appropriately qualified and experienced for conducting procedures on living animals (US Government Principle VIII). The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) requires that all personnel handling animals, conducting research, teaching, or testing that involves handling, manipulation, or performing procedures on live vertebrate animals, whether in the laboratory or in the field, complete minimum training requirements.  Proficiency in techniques must be demonstrated prior to performing unsupervised.

II. Scope

This document applies to all persons providing animal husbandry, working with laboratory animals, MSU affiliated field personnel or directly responsible for the conduct of animal research.

III. Process

  1. Personnel performing routine animal husbandry are not required to be added to a protocol. Personnel performing technical procedures (including ARC staff) are required to be added to a protocol before working under the protocol. CITI training and Occupational Health and Safety clearance as listed below (A.1. and A.2) must be completed to secure protocol approval.
    1. CITI Courses
      1. CITI modules and learning curricula is assigned based on roles by filling out a course enrollment questionnaire. To be taken once.
        1. Principal Investigators
        2. Investigators, Staff and Students Curricula
        3. Species specific training in CITI
        4. Occupational Health Orientation- Research with Animals 
      2. Animal Biosafety (based on species you will be working with) - 3 year expiration
        1. MSU Laboratory Animal Biosafety
        2. MSU Agricultural and Field Studies Animal Biosafety
      3. Working with the IACUC Refresher- to be taken every 3 years following completion of a. above. 
    2. Occupational Health and Safety Clearance 
      1. Completion of Risk Assessment
      2. Medical History/Animal Allergy
      3. Annually: Annual Medical Surveillance:  Noncompliance with this annual requirement will result in removal from the protocol and removal of access to the ARC, as applicable.
    3. Online courses and completion of the Risk Assessment form may be completed in any order. 
  2. Once the IACUC protocol has been approved, and work will be in the ARC, JRL or JFLF; Animal Care at MSU, animal facility orientation (as applicable) and animal handling/procedure training must be completed before working on an experimental protocol. 
    1. Completion of face-to-face training or WebEx/Teams etc. 
      1. Animal Care at MSU (training with AV or designee) if working with animals in ARC, JRL or JFLF.
    2. Facility Orientation
    3. Animal handling as applicable
    4. Personnel working with nonhuman primates (NHPs) must attend additional training covering: 
      1. Safety, risks and zoonosesassociatedworking with NHPs
      2. Herpes B virus and exposure kit procedures
      3. Tour of NHP facility, review of management and handling techniques and NHP behavior. 
    5. All personnel must display proficiency in the specific procedures they will be performing on animals as described in each IACUC protocol. There are many training opportunities available research personnel For example:  
      1. Hands-on training by the PI or other laboratory members already proficient in a specific procedure. 
      2. On-line videos such as those produced by NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and Jove Charles River training videos. 
      3. Hands-on training by ARC personnel. 
    6. For survival surgical procedures, training with the AV or designee is required and can be scheduled through the ARC (ARC@montana.edu). 
    7. The Principal Investigator is ultimately responsible to ensure that research personnel are proficient in procedures. Protocol specific procedure training and assessment must be documented and maintained by the PI/research personnel.

 

IACUC Approval Date: 06/25/2019

Review Date: 4/20/2022

Issue Date: 4/26/2022