December 2020 Newsletter

All animal orders for use in OLAR facilities must be approved through OLAR. Failure to do so could result in the order being turned away. Please contact OLAR directly if you have questions regarding the animal ordering process.

https://hsc.wvu.edu/olar/animal-orders/

The Office of Laboratory Animal Resources welcomes Dr. Rebecca Welch as their new Clinical Veterinarian. Dr. Welch is a graduate of University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, and completed a lab animal medicine residency with the Gulf Coast Consortium Postdoctoral Training Program, with Baylor College of Medicine as her home institution. After residency, she spent 2.5 years as a clinical veterinarian with Charles River Laboratories in Houston, TX working with non-human primates. Dr. Welch is excited to join OLAR here at WVU, and is looking forward to meeting everyone and exploring Morgantown and the surrounding areas (once this pandemic is behind us). In addition to her clinical responsibilities, she will also serve on the IACUC. If you have questions or issues related to veterinary care, clinical concerns or training you can contact her at Rebecca.welch@hsc.wvu.edu or 304-293-1813.
 

For clinical concerns outside of office hours and during weekends/holidays, please call 304-276-1314.
Veterinary staff is available 24/7, 365 days of the year.

OLAR also welcomes Robert Williams as their new Facility Manager. Robert brings to WVU 35 years of animal facility management experience with organizations such as SRI International, Northwestern University and more recently MD Anderson in Houston, TX. His responsibilities include the oversight of OLAR's husbandry staff and their supporting role in animal research activities. He reports directly to Dr. Cotroneo. If you have facility related  questions or concerns, he can be reached at robert.williams9@hsc.wvu.edu or 304-293-5244.

If you utilize a charcoal waste anesthetic gas filter as part of your anesthesia setup (such as F/air canister), here are some important tips you should remember:

• Charcoal canisters can only be used for halogenated gases (isoflurane, sevoflurane). They should not be used for nitrous oxide gas.
• Charcoal canisters have a finite life span, which can be monitored by weight.
• Weight of canister should be recorded BEFORE its first use. Before each subsequent use, the weight should be checked and recorded.
• Check manufacturer specified limits (for F/Air canisters the weight limit increase is 50g). It should be replaced, or monitored closely during use by weighing between animals, if weight is close to the specified limit.
• To function appropriately, the canister must be at a level below that of the vaporizer and in the upright/vertical position, to assist in passive scavenging.
• To ensure adequate air flow, the holes on the bottom (F/Air canister) or top of canister (VaporGuard) must not be blocked.

Used canisters can be disposed of in normal trash, since the charcoal has inactivated the anesthetic gas.

The United States Department of Agriculture proposes new policy for defining Research Involving Free-living Wild Species in Their Natural Habitat. The USDA completed its listening sections on October 12, 2020 on a policy meant to assist research facilities in determining what studies meet the definition of the term Field Study. A copy of the proposed policy can be found here:

https://beta.regulations.gov/document/APHIS-2020-0087-0002

If you have an eyewash or shower in your lab, EH&S recommends:
Bump test the emergency shower and eyewash equipment weekly and prior to performing high-risk tasks. Obtain a 5 gallon bucket, hold it up around the shower head, activate the shower and run for approximately 10 seconds or until bucket is full. When bump testing eyewash, let it run for 15 seconds, or until water is clear. Initial and date the inspection tag or log.

You can find more information on the EH&S website: Eyewash & Safety Shower Do's and Don'ts

You can download an Eyewash Maintenance Log here: Eyewash Maintenance Log (PDF)

Below is a list of *NEW* or recently updated policies and guidelines. You can find them on the OAW website here:

IACUC Policies, Guidelines & SOPs 

• Superovulation of Female Mice for Embryo Collection (updated 7/2020)
• Hazardous Chemicals Used with Animals (updated 7/2020)
• Prolonged Restraint of Animals (updated 8/2020)
• *NEW* Recording and Use of Media Associated with IACUC-Approved Activities (9/2020)
• Q Fever (updated 9/2020)
• Social Housing of Research Animals (updated 9/2020)
• Rodent Behavior Core SOP (updated 9/2020)
• *NEW* Blood Collection Guidelines (11/2020)
• *NEW* Training Requirements for Personnel, Visitors or Students (11/2020)
  

Protocol Writing Tips

Just a reminder- when writing an animal use protocol, you only need to include details pertinent to your LIVE ANIMAL work. Post-mortem tissue collection procedures, histological analyses, cell culture work, etc. do not need to be described in detail beyond a brief mention to explain the need for tissue/sample collection and/or to justify the number of animals requested for experiments. In addition, your experimental design description should not contain extensive study rationale and background information (i.e. it should not read like a grant proposal). A good rule of thumb is to write it so that a non-expert in your field can easily understand the purpose of your live animal use.