Use of Agriculture Species in Food and Fiber Work, The Agricultural Animal Care and Use Committee
As required by the U.S. Public Health Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Ohio State University has established an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IACUC oversees OSU's animal program, facilities, and procedures. It is responsible for ensuring that OSU complies with all applicable provisions of the Animal Welfare Act and other federal statutes and regulations relating to animals.
Research and teaching protocols that are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act but fall under the “Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Agricultural Research and Teaching” (the Ag Guide) do not require formal IACUC review. Such protocols, nonetheless, require review by a college animal care and use committee organized and operating under the provisions of the Ag Guide.
Currently, the IACUC has formally authorized one such committee, the Agriculture Animal Care and Use Committee for the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (the AgACUC). The AgACUC is not a duly constituted IACUC appointed by the IO. The AgACUC primarily reviews research and teaching protocols that fall under the Ag Guide. Protocols that involve biomedical research with farm animals and require institutional approval under the Assurance, however, fall outside of the scope of the Ag Guide and must be forwarded to the IACUC for review. In these cases, the AgACUC functions solely as an advisory committee in conducting a preliminary review for the principal investigator prior to submission to the IACUC. The AgACUC has no formal authority for action under the institution's Assurance. The IACUC will monitor the performance of the AgACUC by performing random audits of the AgACUC protocols as part of the semiannual report.
