Animal Care Services

Animal Care Services (ASC) and the University of Florida are responsible for providing adequate animal husbandry and veterinary medical care to animals utilized for research and training purposes at the University.  For scientific purposes research laboratories commonly find it essential to provide some aspect of this care themselves, i.e. medicated feed or water, food or fluid restriction, modified cage changing schedule, etc..  This creates a deviation from standard husbandry care practices, and the inability of this institution to demonstrate with certainty the provision of appropriate care.  Husbandry care tasks to be performed by research staff must be specifically addressed in the IACUC approved “Animal Use for Research” protocol.

To clearly inform ACS staff to NOT perform a given husbandry task, the research laboratory staff is to complete a purple “Special Care by PI” card and place it in the animal’s cage card holder.  Indicate the tasks the research staff will perform, and annotate the date and time that ACS should resume standard husbandry practices.

NOTE:  When the period of special care has passed, research staff must not simply remove the purple card; they must ensure the animals are provided with standard feed and water.  If the animals have been receiving “medicated” bottled water they must be given a bottle of standard water.  If the automatic water valve for that cage has been plugged during the period of special care, it must be unplugged and the animals must also receive a bottle of standard water. If the animal cage was in a rack position without automatic water (or a section of the rack that has had the automatic watering system disabled), it must be relocated to a docking station equipped with working automatic water; but a water bottle must still be provided to the cage.

Since the UF IACUC requires documentation that appropriate daily husbandry care was provided by the research staff, the purple “Special Care by PI Monthly Summary” form is to be completed and then initialed daily when the care is provided.  These forms are to be maintained for the duration of the special care period.  When these forms are filled, or if the period of Special Care has passed, ACS staff will collect them for long-term filing.

These cards and forms are available throughout ACS facilities or may be picked up in the ACS Business Office, room CB-160. Both sides of the Monthly Summary form are to be filled out, and investigators and their staff are requested to read the document fully, as it contains information and instructions that do not appear on the purple cards.

Failure to feed/water the animals in a timely manner (by 3:00PM local time) may result in the animals being fed the standard rodent chow and/or watered with the standard water.
            When ACS Husbandry staff identifies animals that appear to have not received feed or water, and the Monthly Summary form has not been initialed for that day, they will notify the ACS Veterinary Care staff.
            ACS Veterinary Care staff will attempt to contact the PI’s research staff for clarification.
            If the PI’s research staff can not be contacted, or if requested to do so by the research staff, the animals will be fed the standard rodent chow and/or watered with the standard water.