Checklist to Help with Semiannual Animal Facility Inspections

We recently released a Guide Notice discussing various flexibilities for conducting semiannual animal facility inspections. This Notice highlights an optional checklist based on the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide), designed to help Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) conduct thorough animal facility inspections. Both the Notice and the checklist strive to reduce the administrative burden on IACUCs while also ensuring that all the requirements for the Guide are met.

Here are some highlights for those new to the checklist:

• Addressing major topics of the Guide, such as Institutional Policies and Responsibilities, Veterinary Care, Terrestrial and Aquatic Animal Housing and Support Areas, Cagewash, and Special Facilities
• Indicating (in blue color coding) which are “must” statements of the Guide
• For each statement, referencing relevant pages in the Guide, sections in the PHS Policy, and/or NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare guidance to learn more
• Providing a template for the semiannual report to the Institutional Official, as required by the PHS Policy

The checklist is available as a PDF or Microsoft Word document, which enables institutions to edit it to reflect their own institutional programs and needs.