As a laboratory animal user, you may have received automated Cayuse AO “Animal Usage Notification” emails advising you on the number of approved animals remaining vs the total animals approved.

These emails are designed to alert you if your animal usage exceeds a certain percentage and will help you continue to plan for research activities that require animals and to amend your protocol as needed to secure approval of additional animals.

If you receive one of these messages, please review your current animal use and remaining numbers and if needed amend the protocol to allow additional animals.  This approach will prevent inadvertent noncompliance and help us more accurately report animal use to regulatory agencies (where applicable).

As a reminder, according to policy 101, the IACUC has determined that for protocols using rodents (mice, rats, hamsters, and gerbils), guinea pigs, chinchillas, quail, chickens, frogs, axolotls, and fish, “animal use up to 110% of the number approved by the IACUC is within the acceptable range of the approximate number approved by the IACUC.” For all other protocols, the actual number approved is considered the maximum number allowable.