- Personnel Responsible
- The laboratory Principal Investigator (PI) is responsible for ensuring that all cages under their name have appropriate identification.
- Unit of Identification
- Rodents are identified by cage card, located on the front of the cage, on a cage- by-cage basis. Individual animals can be identified by other means (ear tags, tattoos) but only the cage card is required.
- Minimum information required on cage cards:
- The following items are required on all rodent cages:
- Principal Investigator Name
- Active IACUC Protocol Number in L0XXX format
- Vendor (either commercial vendor, previous institution, or “ACF Bred”)
- Species
- Strain or Commercial Vendor Stock Number
- Cage # (specific to lab or coordinate system used on the cage rack – i.e. A1)
- Sex
- Date of Birth OR Date of Arrival
- ACF Bred animals need Date Of Birth, Vendor supplied animals need Date of Arrival (DOB is optional if provided by vendor)
- Cage Census
- Must be kept updated
- The following items are required on all rodent cages:
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Special information that must be included in certain circumstances
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Special Diet or Water Requirements
- i.e. High fat diet or high salt diet
- Date started, length of time special requirements will be in place
- i.e. High fat diet or high salt diet
- Any hazards associated with the cage
- i.e. Biohazards, carcinogens, chemical hazards
- Specific hazards must be included (i.e. streptozotocin)
- Application date and end date must be included
- i.e. Biohazards, carcinogens, chemical hazards
- Starting weight must be included for any animal on specialty diet or food restriction
- Please see Michigan Tech IACUC Policy #2: Rodent Survival Surgery, for surgical procedure documentation requirement for cages.
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- Exceptions
- The attending veterinarian or designee may grant exceptions to this policy when it is deemed in the best interest of the animals.
- Concerns or issues regarding rodent cage identification must be reported to and will be reviewed by the IACUC.