Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC)

IACUC Year-End Report 2018-2019

Website: https://umaine.edu/research-compliance/animal-care/

Function: Vertebrate animals may share in varying degree many sensory, emotional and cognitive responses with humankind. It is essential that we assume responsibility for their welfare and that animal use for research or teaching purposes be conducted in a humane, compassionate manner. To justify the ethical costs of using live animals in research, teaching, or testing, there must be reasonable expectation that such usage will contribute to the advancement of knowledge, which may eventually benefit humankind and/or animals. No research, teaching, or testing activities using live vertebrate animals shall be initiated until the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) has approved a protocol for such use.

Membership: The IACUC shall nominate and the President of the University shall appoint members of the IACUC to three-year terms. Members may be reappointed to further terms. The President may also appoint alternates when desirable. Such alternates shall have the same voting privileges as the member for whom they substitute.

The President shall appoint one member of the IACUC to serve as Chair for a term of two years. At the beginning of the Chair’s second year of service, the President shall appoint a Chair-Elect to succeed the current Chair. The Chair shall normally be a member of the University’s tenured faculty who engages in research or teaching with animals and who has substantial experience in the review of research and teaching with animals.

The IACUC shall have no fewer than seven members, qualified through their combined experience and expertise to oversee the University’s animal program, facilities, and procedures. In addition to possessing the professional competence necessary to review specific activities, the IACUC shall be able to ascertain the acceptability of proposed animal use in terms of institutional commitments and regulations, applicable law, and standards of professional conduct and practice. The IACUC shall, therefore, include persons knowledgeable in these areas, or have access to the counsel of such persons.

Current membershttps://umaine.edu/research-compliance/animal-care/institutional-animal-care-use-committee-membership/

Reports to: Vice President for Research & Dean of the Graduate School