Accounting for Offspring
​Background
PHS policy requires that all animals produced in breeding colonies be included in Animal Use Requests (AURs) and deducted from approved balances.  Therefore, animals bred for strain development and perpetuation and animals culled for other reasons such as inappropriate genotype, age or gender must be included in the number of animals requested in the UAB Animal Use Request Form.  To assist investigators in recognizing protocols that may not have included the animals produced in colonies and/or may exceed the approved number, the Animal Resources Program (ARP) developed an electronic query based on the number of unique cage cards detected by electronic census since the last approval date of the protocol.  The estimate is based on the assumption that a unique cage card represents 3 produced/weaned animals.  The information provided to you in your summary statement includes the number of animals approved for the protocol during the indicated approval period, the number of animals procured/purchased to date and an estimate of the number of animals produced to date during the current approval period and the remaining balance for the protocol. The estimate is based on the assumption that a unique cage card represents 3 produced/weaned animals.  The information below includes the number of animals approved for the protocol during the indicated approval period, the number of animals procured/purchased and an estimate of the number of animals produced to date during the current approval period and the remaining balance for the protocol.
 
Becoming Compliant
  • Use information from Bioware to come up with an estimated number of offspring produced.
  • Estimated offspring numbers based on total number of NEW scanned barcodes recorded during census.
  • Known animal orders, known internal transfers (from PI to PI transfer form) and imports are not included in this process.

Breeding and other Cage Separations

  • System which will not include breeders that have already been counted against the protocol (ie, previously counted male/female separated out from a cage and set up as breeders.  This male and female are placed in a new cage which requires a barcode. When scanning occurs Bioware shows this being a NEW barcode even though the animals have been already been counted).
  • System will not include animals separated to new cages from fighting, surgery or other activities in which the animals have already been counted.
  • On the Bioware Web Portal Cage Card Printing page the investigator has the ability to choose whether the animal in the cage has already been counted/included in the protocol or not.

Investigator/Lab Personnel Role

  • Maintain appropriate records relating to breeding/offspring.
  • Compare your records to the estimated number and notify the ARP of any discrepancies so adjustments can be made.
  • If the Available Animals is in the negative you will need to contact the IACUC for direction regarding modifying your protocol.
  • If the Available Animals is in the positive you should not have to do anything, UNLESS you plan to use more than the Available number of animals listed during the approval period; at this point you will need to contact the IACUC for direction regarding modifying your protocol.
  • Use the estimated number to help you determine the total number of animals you list in your protocol renewal.