Guides @ UF: Veterinary Medicine: Animal Use & IACUC

What is IACUC? and UF Resources

According to federal law, every research institution that uses animals for research or instruction must have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) to oversee and evaluate animal care and use.

University of Florida IACUC
IACUC members review all requests for approval to use vertebrate animals.
HSC Libraries Search Request
Part of UF’s IACUC review process includes “a search for alternatives to live animal use and any potentially painful/distressful procedures has been documented in the form.” The HSC Library offers comprehensive searches of the relevant literature performed by a librarian, which can be particularly helpful in this step of the IACUC process. Follow the link above to request a search. HSC faculty members receive this service free of charge; IACUC searches typically take 1-2 weeks.

Animal Alternatives Resources on the Web

The resources below provide a starting point for learning about alternatives to animal use in research and teaching.

Animal Welfare Information Center
Provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
IACUC Central
Produced by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, this site serves as a resource for IACUCs across the country.
AltWeb
A detailed, step-by-step guide to alternatives searches from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
AltBib: Bibliography on Alternatives to Animal Testing
A searchable bibliography developed by the National Library of Medicine, now located at the National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Institute for Laboratory Animal Research
A service of the National Academies devoted to evaluating and disseminating information about animal use in research and teaching.
Norecopa
Norecopa is Norway's National Consensus Platform for the advancement of "the 3 Rs." Includes a database of audiovisual aids to use as an alternative or supplement to animal use in teaching.