All University of Idaho colleges with animals in their care have received full accreditation from the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC), meaning the quality of care in animal research and use has been acknowledged to be completely up to standard, with no new suggestions for improvements.
This accreditation opens the door to new collaborations with other organizations and universities, more funding and a higher quality of research for various colleges at UI, including the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the College of Natural Resources.
This is the first time the university has been accredited after working for nearly 20 years to prepare its facilities and have all requirements met. The process includes an internal review done by the university, evaluators visiting the university’s facilities and making corrections suggested through the accreditation process.
“We have gone through the rigorous process to meet the standards to show that our animal welfare standards are very high,” Audrey Harris, associate director of the Office of Research Assurances, said. “It’s a peer review that’s being done of us. It’s not a legal requirement and what (AAALAC) is doing is reviewing the legal requirements we al ready have.”
Full accreditation is the highest certification level out of four, with no further suggestions on how to make the facilities better. All of UI’s facilities were reviewed, including the Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station in Southern Idaho and Rinker Rock Creek Ranch in Central Idaho.
Gaylen Edwards, president of AAALAC’s Council on Accreditation, was one of the visitors on campus in July, when all of the facilities were inspected. He praised the amount of new equipment throughout all programs, particularly in the Nancy M. Cummings Research Center and the Sheep Center.
“We are spending money to get other people to come in and make sure that we are caring for our animals appropriately,” Harris said. “To me, that’s the biggest thing. We can show that we really care about welfare, we care about our animals, we love our animals and we want them to be happy and healthy.”
Brooke Christensen, a doctoral student in biology, said her basic responsibility as a researcher is to respect the animals and to give them a happy, healthy life because research wouldn’t be possible without them. Having healthy animals increases the validity of research because the creatures wouldn’t have any physiological or behavioral changes which could affect results.
“The certification is really critical for collaborations, which are super important in conducting interdisciplinary research,” Christensen said. “You want to be on the same par in terms of animal care standards so there can be a transfer of research between the institutions.”
Some funding agencies, like the Department of Defense, will not provide funds to institutions without AAALAC accreditation. UI having full accreditation will open up more pathways for possible funding in all areas of animal research.
Every three years, the university will need to be reevaluated in order to retain its new status as one of 16 land grant institutions in the country with some form of accreditation.
“When we got this (accreditation), I cried,” Harris said. “It’s a really big deal for us. WSU has had it forever. This is something we’ve been striving for and striving for and we finally are there. Not only are we there, but with bells and whistles and everything.”
Anteia McCollum can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @antxiam5.