Meeting the Requirements of the Animal Welfare Act Workshop

The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations require principal investigators to provide Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) with documentation demonstrating that their activities do not unnecessarily duplicate previous experiments and that alternatives to procedures that may cause more than momentary pain or distress to the animals have been considered (9 C.F.R. § 2.31 (d)(1)(ii-iii)(2024)). An alternative is any method which results in the replacement or reduction of animals, or refinement of experimental techniques. One way to meet this federal mandate is through an alternatives literature search. Therefore, the “Meeting the Requirements of the Animal Welfare Act” workshop will primarily focus on how to conduct a literature search for alternatives. 

The objectives of the workshop are to provide:

• An overview of the AWA and its regulations as they pertain to considering alternatives;
• A review of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal use) alternatives concept and examples;
• Guidance for where to find 3Rs literature and resources;
• Instruction on database literature searching techniques (e.g. search syntax); and
• A demonstration of an alternatives literature search.

While this workshop is available to anyone, it is particularly beneficial to those who conduct literature searches for animal use alternatives or review these searches on an animal research protocol to ensure compliance with the AWA. This may include researchers/principal investigators, animal care staff, veterinarians, IACUC members, librarians, information specialists, or animal use program administrators.