LAR - Ordering Animals

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Ordering and Transferring Animals

All animals that are housed in LAR facilities must be ordered through the LAR office, whether they are donated or purchased. Also, moving animals between buildings or rooms within the LAR housing facilities must be pre-approved by the LAR office.

Ordering Animals

Transferring within School of Medicine and Public Health Facilities

Transferring between UW-Madison Schools

Importing from Outside Sources

Exporting to Other Institutions

Ordering Animals

This refers to animals that are obtained from approved commercial vendors.

Orders must be received in the LAR Office in room 2069 Medical Sciences Center no later than 4:00 PM on Wednesday for delivery the following week. Please note that some vendors have deadlines that are earlier than this. For information, please call the LAR office at 263-6466.

Order Form

You can submit orders in the following ways:

Submit an Animal Order on-line using your web browser.

This option is password protected.

Please call the LAR office at 263-6466 to obtain your user name and password.

Complete a paper copy Animal Order Form.

You can download it from the above link using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Or, you can pick up copies of the form in the LAR office or from any of the
facility supervisors.

Fax the completed form to 263-6463 or bring it to the LAR office
in room 2069 Medical Sciences Center.

Standing Order Form

Standing orders are those that recur on a very regular schedule (e.g., every Tuesday) for an extended period of time (e.g., at least two months) with little or no change in the specifications of the order. If you wish to establish a standing order, please use the Standing Order Form.

Commercial Vendors

The LAR office has lists of approved vendors for various species. Call 263-6466 with questions about where to obtain animals. However, please note that the LAR staff can not assist you with choosing a research model appropriate for your research. The major vendors maintain web sites that may help answer this and other questions. Please check vendor links.

Transferring Animals

This refers to moving animals within or between UW-Madison animal facilities, and exporting or importing animals when an approved commercial vendor is not the source. All such transfers must be approved in advance by the LAR office. The most important reason for this is to limit the spread of disease within the animal colonies. Procedures for types of transfers are discussed below.

Please note: If you wish to obtain animals, your protocol must indicate the source in Question 9a (i.e., other UW-Madison rodent colonies, rodent colonies at other institutions, etc.). It must also address how you will ensure that animals that were previously on another protocol will be suitable for your research (Question 9c). If the answers to these questions in your existing animal protocol are not appropriate to the request for animals that you are making, LAR cannot approve your request to add transfer animals to your protocol. You will need to amend the protocol with new answers to these questions. This is a simple administrative amendment that can generally be processed in less than 2-weeks. Contact Debbie Morris at 262-7109 or morris@rarc.wisc.edu with questions about processing your amendment.

To initiate any transfer, please use the Animal Transfer Form. This can be submitted in the following ways:

Complete a paper copy Animal Transfer Form.
You can download it from the above link using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Or, you can pick up copies of the form in the LAR office or from any of the

facility supervisors.

Email the completed form to transfers@lar.wisc.edu, Fax it to 263-6463 or bring it to the LAR office in room 2069 Medical Sciences Center.

Transferring within School of Medicine and Public Health Facilities

You may take animals from animal holding rooms to procedure rooms within the animal facility and return them to the room they came from without prior approval from LAR or the RARC veterinary staff. You may take animals to your laboratory for procedures approved in your protocol and return them to the animal facility room they came from without prior approval from LAR or RARC veterinary personnel in all buildings except the Microbial Sciences Building (MSB) and the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR). The MSB and WIMR are A-designation facilities; due to the risk of rodent pathogen entry into the vivarium, animals that leave are not to return*. ALL OTHER MOVEMENTS OF ANIMALS REQUIRE PRIOR APPROVAL FROM LAR OR RARC STAFF. Submit the Animal Transfer form above to initiate your request to move the animals.

* To protect the Specific Pathogen Free status of A-designated facilities, animals that leave animal holding areas are not to return to the vivarium. This policy is designed to reduce the risk of introducing rodent pathogens to the animal housing area, as the potential exists for animals or cages to come in contact with rodent pathogens in hallways and laboratories. Options for investigators performing procedures in A-designated facilities are to a) make use of procedure rooms provided within the vivarium, or b) laboratory housing of animals (ACUC Policy 17).

Transferring between UW-Madison Schools

Whether you are moving animals into the Medical School facilities from another UW-Madison school or visa versa, you must submit the Animal Transfer form above. Facility animal care staff will be informed of the approved transfer, and available to assist.

Importing from Outside Sources

As with the other types of animal transfers, your request should be initiated by completing the Animal Transfer form above. LAR and or RARC veterinary staff will then contact the outside source and request health information for the animal(s) you wish to import. Note that health reports must be less than 90 days old and include both serology and parasitology.

View Power Point presentation: "Prevalent Infections of Laboratory Rats and Mice: Implications for Their Use in Research" by Charles B. Clifford, DVM, PHD, DACVP; Director of Pathology and Technical Services at Charles River.

Health requirements for importing rodents are as follows:

Mice

Within 90 days	Within 1 year
Mouse Hepatitis Virus
Murine Norovirus (MNV) pdf document - MNV Virology pdf document - Ward-MNV-Toxpath	Virus (GD7)
Sendai	K virus
Pneumonia Virus of Mice	Polyoma Virus
Minute Virus of Mice	Mouse Adenovirus
Mouse Parvoviruses	Ectromelia
Epizootic Diarrhea of Infant Mice Virus (rotavirus)	Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus
Mycoplasma pulmonis	Cilia Associated Repiratory Bacillus
Theiler's Murine Encephalomyelitis
intestinal parasites and ectoparasites
Reovirus Type 3

Rats

Within 90 days	Within 1 year
Rat Coronavirus/Sialodacryoadenitis Virus	Hantaan Virus
Sendai	Tyzzers's
Pneumonia Virus of Mice	Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus
Rat parvoviruses	Mouse Adenovirus
Mycoplasma pulmonis	Cilia Associated Respiratory Bacillus
Theiler's Murine Encephalomyelitis Virus/Rat Theilovirus (GD7)
Reovirus Type 3
intestinal parasites and ectoparasites

Other species

Large animals such as monkeys, dogs, and cats may be subject to quarantine and conditioning. Length of quarantine will depend on the animal's health history and expected use.

Exporting to Other Institutions

Most institutions will require a health report from UW-Madison before they will accept animals from Madison into their own animal facilities. The LAR veterinary staff will prepare and send these health reports free of charge. In order to initiate your request to export animals to an outside institution, complete the Animal Transfer Form.

Arrangements for shipping the animals are the responsibility of the investigator. Advice about carriers and assistance with packing the animals for shipment can be obtained from LAR. LAR will also order shipping containers at your request. Please indicate that you would like assistance in the appropriate place on the Animal Transfer Form, or call 263-6466.

Monkeys, dogs and cats are subject to specific federal and state regulations regarding their transportation, and require official USDA health certificates. Please submit your transfer request early to ensure that certificates are ready when they are needed.