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Animal Care and Use Program

Animal Care and Use Program

If you need to use animals in your teaching
If you need to use animals in your research

Responsible animal practice at UFV

The UFV Animal Care Committee (ACC) is responsible for ensuring ethical animal practice for animals used in research, testing, or teaching projects and programs. Any research or teaching involving animals at UFV must be reviewed and approved through the ACC before animals are brought on campus and a project begins. The ACC must operate in accordance with and conform to the ACC Terms of Reference‌.

Guided by the Canadian Council on Animal Care

The ACC's program and requirements are guided and certified by the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC). The CCAC acts "...in the interests of the people of Canada to ensure through programs of education, assessment and persuasion that the use of animals, where necessary, for research, teaching and testing employs optimal physical and psychological care according to acceptable scientific standards, and to promote an increased level of knowledge, awareness and sensitivity to relevant ethical principles."

The CCAC's mission statement provides a model for UFV as it:

  • certifies UFV as an institution for conducting animal based teaching and training and for animal use in research;
  • provides an outline for the UFV's Animal Care Committee's mandate in its Terms of Reference for Animal Care Committees; and
  • guides the UFV Animal Care Committee's mission statement.

Maintaining a Good Animal Practice Certificate

UFV holds a current CCAC Certificate of GAP – Good Animal Practice. Maintaining the GAP certificate is an ongoing process involving rigourous CCAC assessment visits every three years to evaluate, UFV's "...animal ethics and care program, the effectiveness of their animal care committee to oversee the program, and the appropriateness of their animal facilities, practices, and procedures."

Formal pedagogical and scientific merit processes

UFV operates under a formal set of pedagogical merit review and scientific merit review processes based on the CCAC's Terms of Reference for Animal Care Committees.

Download the Terms of Reference

Learn and practice the 3Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement

UFV researchers and instructors must demonstrate the application of the 3Rs in every protocol through scientific or pedagogical merit review. Training is mandatory for all animal users (instructors, researchers, staff, and students).

Learn more about how to access the training