At our 2019 IACUC Conference in March, PRIM&R was pleased to present our first Pillars of PRIM&R Outstanding Poster Award. A team from the Mayo Clinic—Cherylann Gieseke, CVT, CPIA; Naomi M. Gades, DVM, MS, MRCVS, CPIA, CMAR, DACLAM; Hirohito Kita, MD—was chosen for this award for their project “Development and Utilization of a Multi-Species Database to Analyze the Incidence, Duration, and Reason for Single Animal Housing.”

The group sought to expand and develop their social housing policy to better understand incidence, duration, and reasons for animals being single-housed in their facilities. They implemented a revised version of their “IACUC Single Animal Housing Alert” card to collect data on single animal housing across the organization. The data they collected was then “evaluated by the IACUC during the semi-annual inspections to better understand the reasons for single housing animals, and review policies to help facilitate social housing of all animals, when possible. This system was simple, straight-forward, and easy for the research staff to comply with, which provided valuable data for the IACUC to evaluate trends in single housing. Future strategies include converting this from a cage-card-based-system to an electronic system.”

Congratulations to Ms. Gieseke, Dr. Gades, and Dr. Kita!

Conference attendees can learn more about this project and access this and other IACUC19 posters using their IACUC19 session materials password. Nonattendees can purchase access to the IACUC19 Materials and Recordings via our online store—in addition to posters and abstracts from the IACUC19 Poster Presentation Program, the materials and recordings bundle includes audio/video recordings, PowerPoint slides and handouts, and additional background materials from select conference sessions.

To learn more about the Pillars of PRIM&R Outstanding Poster Award, visit our website. There is currently an open Call for Poster Abstracts for IACUC20 and all poster abstracts submitted will be considered for this award (There will also be a Late-Breaking Call for Poster Abstracts for AER19 open between June 3 and July 1, 2019). The award includes complimentary conference registration and hotel for the lead poster author to display their poster at the AER or IACUC Conference; up to $750 to cover travel costs; a one-year complimentary PRIM&R membership; and one complimentary group webinar registration.