Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

Virginia Tech is committed to providing humane care for and ensuring the well-being of animals used in research and teaching at this university by our faculty, staff, and students.

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The university’s commitment to providing humane care for and ensuring the well-being of animals used in research and teaching is guided by the ethical principles described in the “U.S. Government Principles for the Utilization and Care of Vertebrate Animals Used in Testing, Research, and Training” and in applicable federal regulations, guidelines, and policies, including, but not limited to, the federal Animal Welfare Act, the “Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals,” and The Institute for Laboratory Animal Research, a unit of the U.S. National Research Council’s “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.”

For operational purposes and as required by federal law, this commitment is vested in the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee which operates under an Animal Welfare Assurance on file with the Office for Laboratory Animal Welfare within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Virginia Tech is also a registered research facility with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Animal Care unit and its facilities and program of animal care are inspected annually by a federal inspector.

All teaching uses as well as any research involving vertebrate animal species (excluding human subjects), regardless of funding source, are under the purview of the Virginia Tech IACUC. Animals cannot be obtained or used without prior protocol review and approval by the IACUC. As per federal law, the IACUC has the authority to approve, disapprove, or require modifications to be made to protocols to ensure regulatory compliance, and also has the authority to suspend or terminate ongoing protocols if it is determined that inappropriate or unapproved activities involving animals are taking place.

The Virginia Tech Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee reports to the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation, who, as the designated “Institutional Official,” is responsible for ensuring to federal regulatory officials, on behalf of the university, that issues of non-compliance are satisfactorily rectified.

• Virginia Tech's Animal Welfare Assurance Number: A-3208-01 (exp. 07-31-2025)
• USDA - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Registration Certificate Number: 52-R-0012