Facility Inspections

Preparing for a Successful Facility Inspection

 

Know when the IACUC will be inspecting your facility.

• Subscribe to the IACUC Mailing List
• Watch the UCI-Animal Care Homepage for announcements in the spring and fall
• View the Facility Inspection Schedule (when available)

Arrange for someone from the lab to be present during the time when the IACUC site visit team is scheduled to visit your lab areas.

Ideally, this should be the Lead Researcher, lab manager, or senior laboratory personnel – someone who is familiar with all research in the lab (especially those who perform surgeries) should be present to answer questions from the site visitors. This person should also have access to surgery/drug logs, all lab spaces, and drug storage cabinets.

Note:  Vivarium inspections do not require labs to be present for the site visit team, unless specifically requested by the IACUC - Our office will contact you before the scheduled inspection date to coordinate a meetup time, if needed. Of course, the site visit team will still welcome meeting with labs during vivarium inspections if you'd like to. Come say hi!

Check the expiration dates of the drugs, agents, and medical materials to be used in live animals.

All experimental and therapeutic agents, special/medicated feed, and all medical materials used in animals must be within their printed expiration date.

Expired drugs - such as anesthetics, sedatives, analgesics, and euthanasia solutions - CANNOT be used for any procedure with live animals, including terminal surgeries. They must either be 1) discarded or 2) appropriately labeled "Not for Use in Live Animals" and stored separately from "in date" materials.

Refer to the IACUC Policy on the Use of Expired Drugs and Medical Materials for more information.

• Most drugs and many medical materials (such as sutures and sterile gloves) have an expiration date printed on them by the manufacturer.
• Controlled Substances must be picked up by EH&S for disposal - Submit a Request for EH&S Controlled Substance Pick Up.
  (DO NOT discard or dispose of controlled substances in the trash or down the drain!)
• Expired medical materials cannot be used in any survival procedures with live animals. These should either be discarded or labeled and stored separately from "in date" materials.
  • Certain expired medical materials such as saline solution, sutures, medical devices, etc., may be used in animals for acute, terminal procedures if their use does not adversely affect the animal’s well-being or compromise the validity of the study - Consult with campus veterinarians for guidance.

Non-pharmaceutical grade drugs must be labeled with the drug name, concentration, and the expiration date or date the solution was made.

Controlled Substances must be securely stored.

Federal regulations requires that controlled substances be kept under double lock (e.g., in a locked box that is stored in a locked drawer or cabinet), accessible only to personnel authorized to use them. An updated, complete log of all use of controlled drugs must be kept within the laboratory as well. Refer to the Guidance for the Use of Controlled Substances in Animals for more information.

Locations where animals are held in lab areas (outside of ULAR-managed vivarium) for longer than 12 hours must be listed in the approved IACUC protocol.

Federal regulations mandate that all areas where live animals are used or housed be inspected by the IACUC.

If your location is not listed on the approved protocol, submit a Modification in RMS to request addition of the location.

Surgeries on live animals must comply with IACUC requirements.

Surgical procedures must be performed as described in the approved protocol, including preparation of the animal, instruments, surgeon, as well as documentation.

Review to the IACUC Surgery Policy and Guidelines for more information.

• Survival surgeries must use aseptic techniques. If you are performing surgeries on multiple animals, instruments must be sterilized between each animal.
• Animal surgery and post-operative care records must be complete, legible, and available upon request for review.
• Analgesic administration and other post-operative care procedures must be performed and documented.
• Personnel who perform surgeries should be prepared to describe the surgery, aseptic technique, and post-operative care including analgesia to site visitors.

Spaces where you work with live animals need to be clean, organized and free of clutter.

This includes your lab areas and your animal housing/procedure rooms in the vivarium.

• Benchtop areas where animal procedures are performed should be cleared of all clutter and debris. ¹Eliminating clutter is an important part of effective pest management. Store laboratory instruments/materials when not in use (e.g., in plastic containers, put away in cabinets or drawers, etc.) to enable easy cleaning and decontamination of work surfaces and spaces. Minimize the use of tape on surfaces (e.g., wall, floor, ceiling, door), as tape residue can hinder proper sanitation and potentially cause damage.
• Labels and cage cards are completed and legible.
  • Special designation cards (e.g. biohazard, chemical hazards, food/water restriction, etc.) need to list the agents being administered, start/end dates, and contact details.
  • Animal care cards need to identify the protocol number, species, animal ID (or group), and lab contact details. Details about strain, sex, and source are also important.
• Store animal feed, special diets, or treats in vermin-proof sanitizable containers.
• Minimize the use of materials with non-sanitizable, porous surfaces (e.g., cardboard boxes, Styrofoam, etc.) that come into contact with animals or are in animal use areas. If non-sanitizable materials are found in animal use areas by the IACUC site visitors or ULAR personnel, a determination will be made as to the need for repairs or replacement based on the use of the item or material and likelihood of contamination.
• If animal testing equipment (e.g., behavior chambers, mazes, etc.) is used, then all equipment must be clean and routinely sanitized. Records of sanitization dates should be made available, if requested by site visitors.
• Empty animal cages should be removed from the lab and returned to the vivarium cage wash area as soon as possible after procedures are completed.

Records required for animal use areas must be current

Door signs (aka. animal room hazard communication forms) for Biohazards and Chemical hazards must be current (conform to the approved protocol) and posted outside of the rooms where treated animals are housed. Such signage alerts personnel to the presence of potentially hazardous agents.

Food or water restrictions must have daily monitoring logs present in the animal housing room, indicating when food or water was most recently provided.

For Researcher-maintained animals that are housed in lab areas outside of ULAR-managed facilities:

• Daily husbandry logs must be complete and available for review in the animal housing room.
• Be familiar with the Emergency Plan for the animals, as described in the approved protocol.

Personnel working with live animals must be listed as authorized personnel on the protocol.

Laboratory personnel performing live animal procedures must be qualified, trained in the protocol-specific procedures, be listed as part of the protocol's study team, and be familiar with the procedures described in the approved protocol(s).

Personnel training records must be up-to-date for all laboratory staff working with live animals.

This includes any lab-provided training by lab members for specific animal procedures performed under the approved protocols.

The IACUC requires that personnel training records be maintained in the lab for all research using live animals. The IACUC has developed a Research Personnel Training Record template that can be customized for your lab. These records should be available, if requested by site visitors.