Purpose

In order to ensure adequate review of animal care and use protocols, and to be compliant with both PHS Policy and recent clarification from the USDA, UConn Health’s IACUC has established a policy on assigning reviewers to new protocols.

Action

1. All protocols are submitted to the IACUC via the current electronic animal protocol and development system by the Principal Investigator.

2. The IACUC office will initially assign a primary (scientific) reviewer to the protocol. The primary reviewer assignment will be on a rotating basis with consideration of a reviewer’s particular area of expertise. In addition, the Attending Veterinarian (AV) and the Biological Safety Officer (BSO) and/or Chemical Safety Specialist (CSS) will also review all submitted protocols. If there are more than one AV, BSO and/or CSS on the IACUC, this assignment will be performed on a rotating basis.

3. The primary reviewers will remain for the life of the protocol; the initial primary reviewers will serve as the reviewers for all subsequent modifications to the protocol. If the initial primary reviewer is no longer a voting member of the IACUC when a future modification is received, the primary reviewer will be the Chair or Vice-Chair of the IACUC.  If the initial AV, BSO, or CSS reviewer not be a voting member of the IACUC when a future modification is received, these reviews will be performed by the current AV, BSO, or CSS on the IACUC committee.

Effective Dates: June 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026

This policy has been approved by a majority vote of the IACUC members.