LAA: Laboratory Animal Allergy Policy

NUIG has approved a new policy to protect users of laboratory animals for scientific purposes in all the animal premises. The policy outlines approved practices and equipment that contribute to the prevention of this allergy to occur. The VP for Research in NUI Galway has fully supported the implementation of this policy by covering the cost of the initial basic medical examination of all researchers that attend the scheduled Occupation Health Physician examinations. If you want to be included in the list contact awbnuig@gmail.com.

Start Date of any Project

All researchers, please note that if a project does not begin within one year of their approval date an amendment must be applied for  to extend the start date of the project.

NEXT YEAR IMB FEES

In the revised IMB financial model, the fees that will apply for next year, 2014, will affect only new project authorizations and those have been classified in 4 categories.     Most of our projects here in NUI Galway will be in category 3, which includes projects lasting more than one year. The fee associated to these projects is € 2000 a year, which could be halved should the project only last 1 year. For the implementation of this model the IMB will expect that fee as part of the requirements for project authorization application. Annual fees for projects lasting more than one year will be invoiced in advance of their anniversary. Non-payment of annual fee would be communicated appropriately to the establishment concerned as they will be expected to result in IMB compliance actions. 

The IMB has clarified for us that even if the procedures are performed within a year if the data collection goes beyond that year, the project will still be considered as category 3. This means that the authorization date will start the clock ordinarily and the date of euthanasia will be considered as the date of completion.

The IMB acknowledges the fact that for 2015 the fee model might change although for the next calendar year these fees will apply.

IMB XMAS BREAK!

The IMB will be closed from Tuesday 24th December through 1st January 2014. New and amendment applications must therefore be submitted to the IMB no later than 5pm on Wednesday 18th December 2013 if they are to be validated for assessment before Christmas. Applications submitted after this date will not be validated for assessment until January 2nd, 2014. Please note that the IMB closure times are classified as " clock-stopped days".
Other IMB Announcements:

TRAINING UPDATE

The requirements for an instructor giving training in any Irish licensed establishment that it is not his/her own are:

1. Hold an individual authorization that includes the procedure he/she is providing training on
2. Work under the the confines of a valid project authorization in the second establishment even if not named in it.
3. Work in the second establishment for no more than two consecutive days to a maximum of 5 days per year.
4. Contact the IMB to this regard and get IMB approval.

Any person providing or receiving training for short periods of time in an Irish establishment to attain competency in a technique/procedure must hold an individual authorization whether they are from and Member States or not. The IMB contemplates the issuing of "short term individual authorizations" after evaluating a cover letter outlining the project on which they expect to work, level of involvement, dates, procedures to be trained in, etc. Evidence of specific training or of having a individual authorization equivalent in other country will be seen favorably and might help to expedite the process.

IMB Update

The IMB has hosted a seminar to update the stakeholders on the IMB experiences in the implementation of the tasks required and systems put in place to facilitate compliance to existing legislation. A powerpoint presentation has been put together with a summary of this update.
Should anybody require a copy of the presentation of the seminar series please request it to the speaker.

PROJECT DEVIATIONS

What do we do if things are not going according to plan in our project?
The IMB expects that if the detected deviation has a negative impact in the welfare of the animal, the deviation is logged in the project deviation record, which will be available for IMB inspection, and that it is reported to the animal welfare body for their discussion. Then the applicant should submit an amendment to the ethics committee and to the IMB. Any recommendation for change by the animal welfare body should be included in the project amendment application.

IMB NEWS

Last Wednesday, the IMB have provided an update on the status of the S.I. No 543 implementation.

They have issued approximately 50 individual authorizations to date, but not that many project authorizations. Regarding the publication of the non-technical project summary of these project authorizations, the IMB are now considering the sensitivities and a safe way to make them public (see updates on their website).

PERSONAL SAFETY VS PUBLICATION NTPS

The NTPS is the Non-Technical Project Summary that every project manager should submit to the IMB as part of their project authorization application. 

The format and structure of the NTPS is established by the European Commission, and it is a requirement that it is written in language that is easily understood. In addition, the legislation requires that the NTPS should not contain proprietary or confidential information which might identify either the establishment where the study is conducted or the personnel involved. There are several measures that the IMB takes in collaboration with the project manager to ensure the applicant's anonymity and personal safety. 

IMB June Update

 The IMB has sent an update alerting stakeholders of the new up-to-date application forms for project, authorization, individual authorization, pject authorization amendment and out of scope. The IMB also encourages users to submit application via the secure portal CESP.

ILASA (Irish Laboratory Animal Science Association) met the IMB

ILASA has met the IMB to raise some issues that came to the association's attention. These are some that you might find interesting and useful:

FERTILIZED EGGS

Fertilized oocytes: www.xenopus.com

If any of you is interested on zebrafish or xenopus laevis fertilized eggs, these are available at regular intervals over the year. Every week or two the frog unit performs in-vitro fertilization of Xenopus laevis eggs to obtain embryos. The male donors are killed to obtain their testis, which means that other organs are available to other users. If you have a scientific/educational use for these tissues, you can contact us at awbnuig@gmail.com and we will put you in contact with the relevant researcher.

Please note that you could not let unmodified eggs to hatch, unless your unit has a breeding authorization. Equally you could not use modified/altered fertilized eggs beyond their independent feeding larval stages unless it is done under a project authorization.

WELCOME

Dear all,

Welcome to the AWB of NUI Galway Blog. This Blog is created as a communication tool for the purpose of advising staff and users on lab animal welfare in all aspects of their use whether it is for production or for scientific purposes. These aspects will range from acquisition, to accommodation, care and use. Consider that the advice should not come unilaterally but from all users. Users, who through their own experience as animal researchers have found useful resources, references, tips, links are strongly encouraged to share those gems of information with others by sending them to awbnuig@gmail.com. They will be posted regularly to make them available to other NUI Galway users.

  

Additionally a google calendar has been created to facilitate the sharing of organs and tissues of all animals killed in NUI Galway establishment. Using and sharing this calendar is a requisite for the use of approved methods of killing animals in NUI Galway and will make us compliant with current legislation. You will be invited to share that calendar shortly.

When you want to confidentially report or communicate an issue to the AWB; you can do it by using an anonymous e-mail address of your own and sending it to either awbnuig@gmail.com or  DV@nuigalway.ie. The issue will be objectively and confidentially investigated and a course of action will arise from it.