TY - JOUR

T1 - Comparing United States and European Union academic animal programs

T2 - Organization, operation, and services offered

AU - Preisig, Patricia

AU - Macy, James D.

AU - Hau, Jann

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The Yale Animal Resource Cost and Benchmarking survey©, conducted in US academic Animal Research/Resource Centers (ARC), was modified to capture similar thematic information in European Union (EU; including the non-EU countries Switzerland and the UK) academic ARCs, which are members of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). Participating institutions came from Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, and Switzerland. Survey data analysis suggests that: (a) in LERU programs, it is common to have more than one ARC under the umbrella of a single institution with organizational “lumping” of the financial, regulatory, and/or operational tasks under one administrative unit; (b) accreditation by an outside agency (e.g., the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care) is more common in US than LERU ARCs; (c) LERU ARCs are responsible for murine breeding, which contrasts with US ARCs, where ∼40% of rodent breeding is managed by researchers; (d) cryopreservation is the most frequently requested fee-for-service offering among LERU participants (75% of participants) compared to 30% of US participants; (e) like US programs, almost all LERU programs have mice and rats, but fewer LERU programs have nonhuman primates (NHPs), and none have dogs on census; (f) LERU ARCs have about an equal amount of vivarium housing and procedure space, while US facilities have twice as much housing as procedure space; (g) a higher percentage of LERU colonies are free of Helicobacter and murine norovirus compared to US colonies; and (h) more LERU ARCs used environmental microbiologic monitoring of rodent colonies compared to US programs.

AB - The Yale Animal Resource Cost and Benchmarking survey©, conducted in US academic Animal Research/Resource Centers (ARC), was modified to capture similar thematic information in European Union (EU; including the non-EU countries Switzerland and the UK) academic ARCs, which are members of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). Participating institutions came from Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, and Switzerland. Survey data analysis suggests that: (a) in LERU programs, it is common to have more than one ARC under the umbrella of a single institution with organizational “lumping” of the financial, regulatory, and/or operational tasks under one administrative unit; (b) accreditation by an outside agency (e.g., the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care) is more common in US than LERU ARCs; (c) LERU ARCs are responsible for murine breeding, which contrasts with US ARCs, where ∼40% of rodent breeding is managed by researchers; (d) cryopreservation is the most frequently requested fee-for-service offering among LERU participants (75% of participants) compared to 30% of US participants; (e) like US programs, almost all LERU programs have mice and rats, but fewer LERU programs have nonhuman primates (NHPs), and none have dogs on census; (f) LERU ARCs have about an equal amount of vivarium housing and procedure space, while US facilities have twice as much housing as procedure space; (g) a higher percentage of LERU colonies are free of Helicobacter and murine norovirus compared to US colonies; and (h) more LERU ARCs used environmental microbiologic monitoring of rodent colonies compared to US programs.

KW - animal health status

KW - Animal Resource/Research Center (ARC) organization

KW - ARC operations

KW - ARC services

KW - LERU

KW - survey

KW - Yale

U2 - 10.1177/00236772231168925

DO - 10.1177/00236772231168925

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37728874

AN - SCOPUS:85171765576

JO - Laboratory Animals

JF - Laboratory Animals

SN - 0023-6772

ER -