Take this survey to help improve revisions to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals! The deadline is June 1. Read on for more information.

The Veterinary Consortium for Research Animal Care and Welfare (VCRACW or the Consortium) is composed of representative veterinarians from the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM), the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners (ASLAP), the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) and the Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV).  The goal of the VCRACW is to provide accurate information on the care and use of research animals to inform the public, lawmakers, and the scientific community about the veterinary care and welfare of these animals.   

As you may be aware, the 8th edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) was published in 2011 and plans to revise it are now underway by the Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR). ILAR is in the process of conducting listening sessions with key stakeholders to ascertain, among other things, which parts of the Guide should be prioritized for revision.

VCRACW has been working for several months with the leadership of AALAS, APV, ASLAP, and ACLAM on a tool that would allow the laboratory animal science community to speak with a unified voice as to which parts of the Guide may be prioritized for revision. The Consortium has developed a survey that is being sent to the relevant memberships. The survey asks participants to review the chapters, subsections, and topics in the Guide and rank those sections most in need of revision. Throughout the survey there are opportunities to provide comments and references that will allow you to personalize your input. Results will be shared with the community and ILAR, who is aware of our approach.  

We’re asking for your support and participation in completing this survey. All results will be kept confidential and will be tabulated and analyzed by the VCRACW prior to sharing with ILAR. The survey will take between 15 – 45 mins to complete, depending upon your familiarity with the Guide. It may be helpful to have a copy of the Guide nearby as you fill out the survey. While we are combining lists so as to avoid duplication between APV, ASLAP, ACLAM and AALAS, we ask that you only complete the survey once. The deadline to complete the survey is June 1, 2022. The instructions for completion and link to the survey can be found here: https://redcap.link/s25loitq.  

Thank you in advance for your participation and dedication to advancing our common research mission.