FAQs

Schedule an appointment to meet with the IACUC Administrator and Attending Veterinarian to give you an orientation to the animal care program. Start working on your animal care and use protocol which requires several training steps: Medical Surveillance Questionnaire, determining where your animals will be located with LAR, orientation to the animal facilities, training of staff, and EHS training.

• Be approved on a current animal use protocol.
• Have a valid Crimson Card. o Complete the Facility Access Form on the LAR webpage.
• Email the form to LAR@indiana.edu requesting access to your respective animal facility.
• Complete animal facility orientation. Please note: you will need to have orientation for each animal facility in which you need access.

No, you should only enter rooms housing animals on protocols in which you yourself are approved. You may not handle any animals on a protocol to which you are NOT approved nor enter rooms housing those animals.

• Must complete the Visitor Facility Access Form on the LAR Forms page.
• Contact LAR@indiana.edu with the form at least 5-7 days prior to day access is needed.

Rodents kept in the research vivarium are housed via specific husbandry practices to assure they are free of specific pathogens that can challenge their health and influence the integrity of the research data collected.  Wild rodents, pet rodents, and rodents used as food for other pets (e.g., feeder mice used to feed a pet snake) can carry zoonotic diseases and pathogens that could alter the health status of our rodent colonies.  If individuals working with animals have pet rodents, it is important to consider the possibility that pathogens rodent pets may carry could be transmitted to vivarium animals through dander and fomites clinging to clothes and hair of the pet owner or wild rodent handler.  Thus, the best practice to prevent bringing contaminants into the animal facility include the following:

• Avoid handling pet rodents prior to working with research rodents for the day.
• Shower and wear clean clothing into work each day working with research animals.
• Wash hands regularly and wear PPE as directed for each facility/room.

Please click here for more information on protecting the vivarium and learning the risks associated with wild and pet rodents.

Fish, frogs, birds, mice, rats, hamsters, voles, and rabbits.

No.

LAR Animal Care Staff observes and cares for your animals 365 days a year. Animal Care Staff is in the facilities generally from 7:30 am-4 pm on weekdays. On weekends, animal care staff are usually in the facilities in the morning, but there are no set hours.

Contact the vet directly via phone 812-855-2356, press 1 when prompted both during normal work hours and after hours or on weekends. If no answer, leave a message with your name, lab name, location of animal and issue. If you are not contacted within 15 mins please call again.

Find an LAR staff member. If after 4pm, find another member of your lab to help you. IF you are locked out of the building, contact another lab member to help you or the building manager.

See Injury Report Signage located on all facility exit doors. (Paperwork links) First Aid kits are located in the LAR office spaces in each facility which can only be accessed while LAR staff are present (M-F 7:30am-4pm).

When first working with animals at the university, you will need to complete a medical questionnaire about your previous contact with animals and associated clinical effects. (see Occupational Health and Safety for Animal Users for the Bloomington campus and follow the prompts for the medical questionnaire). A university-associated physician will review the information and indicate if you will need further health screen testing. That testing may include respiratory function tests and fit testing for use of a respirator. Before being fit tested log into Environmental Health and Safety Respiratory Protection Program for further details about the process. This would be the normal route allowing you to use a respirator for your allergies.

If not recommended through the medical evaluation, you can choose to voluntarily wear extra gloves, lab coat, bonnet and use an N-95 respirator, however you will have to be fit tested for the respirator to ensure if fits and you know how to use it. See above process.

After fit testing, contact your PI to provide you with the extra PPE in which you can bring/wear into the animal facility. Or your PI can contact LAR@iu.edu to request that we provide the extra PPE in the facility for your lab to use, for a small fee.

Standard Light Cycles for animal rooms are 12hr daylight:12hr darkness with most timers set at:

• 7:30am-7:30pm during Day Light Savings
• 6:30am-6:30pm in the fall when Day Light Savings ends
• Can also check the room information sheet on your animal facility door

Need a non-standard light cycle? Contact LAR@iu.edu to request a change in light cycle.

Please see the IACUC Policy. Not without permission of the LAR Director.

Janitor closet locations, ask the Animal Care Staff within the facility.

See information regarding chemical hazard and biological hazard sticker.

There is a bucket labeled chemical spill kit in each facility.

There is a bucket labeled biological spill kit in each facility.

• Yes. Please disinfect and wipe down the cart with the disinfectant provided in all animal rooms before and after use. Please return the cart to the place in which you found it. Please leave carts already in animal rooms in place for all to use as a work station. There are spare carts in each facility hallway that may be used for movement of animals/cages. At MSBII there is a designated space for returning used/dirty carts.
• Please note that if you are removing cages of animals from the facility to your lab and you will be traveling through public space you will need to cover all cages completely. A clean lab coat or a black out curtain works well. Please be sure to wash these periodically. You may also use a disposable gown provided within the facilities, just be sure to tuck the sleeves and string ties under cages to prevent loose edges from hanging over the sides of the cart, if using.