Lab Animal Management syllabus

the welfare and ethics associated with lab animal usage. Primary resources include LATG Training Manual and AALAS in a Flash flashcards (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), Memphis, TN, 2006), Management of Laboratory Animal Care and Use Programs (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2001; reading assignments in the table below refer to this text), Managing the Laboratory Animal Facility (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2009), internet sites and vendor materials. Students are ass igned to write a hypothetical protocol based upon their own interests, which forms the backbone for other assignments. For example, a student may choose to study treatments for Alzheimer’s disease in rats, then could write a protocol using cranial electrode implants, prepare a budget of the materials, consider specific veterinary care and learn which regulations apply to the species. I want to share my syllabus so that others might pick and choose from its ‘fruits’. In this column, I include the first four weeks; the rest will come next month. The full syllabus is 10 pages long, so some details are not included here. The course objectives are as follows: (i) learn elements of managing a lab animal facility meant primarily for biomedical research; (ii) become aware of regulations and performance standards in lab animal management; (iii) learn the components necessary for a suitable lab animal program to become accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International; (iv) complete exercises related to actual tasks in the lab animal facility; (v) personally consider the privileged use of animals in research and other disciplines; (vi) know that research and teaching with animals is more than biomedical (i.e., environment and behavior science); and (vii) appreciate Along with their responsibilities for training investigators and animal care providers, many trainers also teach lengthy didactic courses that lead to certification or form part of a school curriculum. I am one of those. For almost 10 years, I have taught a course called Laboratory Animal Management and Rules and Regulations, which consists of 30 hours instructional time (3 hours per week for 10 weeks) along with a hands-on lab. It is part of an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)–accredited program to train vet techs about animal research. As a result of this course, many students, who thought only about dog and cat clinical work, ‘discover’ lab animal science and obtain jobs in research. These positions allow the techs to work with a wide variety of species, learn about science and contribute to important discoveries. The management topics are, of course, also useful in other animal enterprises like veterinary clinics, zoos and shelters. Lab Animal Management syllabus,