Animal Care and Veterinary Services Animal Care and Veterinary Services

March 16: COVID-19 Information

Western is committed to ensuring animal welfare is always maintained, including as we respond to rapidly evolving circumstances presented by COVID-19. Animal ethics and care staff from across the university, the hospitals and affiliated institutions are working together to determine how appropriate standards for animal husbandry and care will be maintained throughout any potential disruption.

If it becomes necessary to make adjustments to maintain standards (e.g., due to labour and/or supply shortages), we will communicate what the issues are and how they are being addressed. This is a fluid situation we are monitoring closely.

Given the potential of strains on limited resources, we ask that you review your operations as they relate to the use of animal models.

Please ensure your research teams have a clearly defined plan for animal responsibilities and that they are in alignment with your AUP. It is extremely important you notify the ACC (acc@uwo.ca) immediately if you anticipate your team is no longer able to provide your AUP’s required animal care or other animal-related duties. This will allow us to provide alternative arrangements to ensure animal welfare.

Effective immediately, ACVS/ACC strongly recommends suspending the procurement of animals. Should you need to procure animals, your orders will be subject to review by an ACC sub-committee that will take into account facility resources at that time and projected resource demands as based on AUP. To ensure this review process occurs in a timely manner, your local facility supervisor will notify you of changes to deadlines for procurement of animals. If you have breeding as a component of your AUP, make sure you establish your breeding plans with consideration of personnel availability over the coming weeks and consider ceasing breeding operations.

We also ask that you strongly consider suspending any survival surgeries with post-operative survival greater than 24 hours until the April 30, 2020. Considerations should given to ceasingany procedures (surgical and/or study-related) being conducted in hospital areas until April 30, 2020. If you need special diets or other consumables, ensure you procure additional consumables deemed essential to the maintenance of operations for the next 6-8 weeks.

Online training will continue; however, given constraints imposed by social distancing, hands-on courses will be suspended. No research team member or instructor should work with animals unless independently assessed as competent prior to performing animal-based work. Urgent requests for additional staff training for existing members of an AUP will be considered by the ACC and ACVS on a case-by-case basis at acc@uwo.ca.

The ACC will be implementing the following changes during this period:

Members of our team may reach out to you for information about your existing census or colonies. Please take the time to answer their questions without delay as it will help us plan for future contingencies. We are recommending that these changes stay in place until April 30, 2020, but this date may be extended as the situation evolves.

Thank you for your continued collegiality and efforts to ensure appropriate animal welfare and care to ensure the highest scientific research outcomes.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at acc@uwo.ca if you have any questions and please carefully identify your question in the subject line with “COVID-19”.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kate Banks, University Veterinarian, Director ACVS, Western University
Ms. Erika Basile, Director, Research Ethics and Compliance, Western University
Dr. Tim Regnault, ACC Chair, Western University