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The primary WVU facility for maintaining animals for biomedical research and teaching is located at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center (HSC ). Designed to provide centralized procurement and care of animals, this facility consists of approximately 25,000 square feet of animal holding and support space. The HSC facility can support a number of species, including rodents, rabbits, carnivores, small ruminants, swine, nonhuman primates, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. A surgical suite fully equipped for major survival surgeries is available, and additional special support units including a radiology suite and a Cesium 137 small animal irradiator. Also, the facility has two incubators for hatching eggs.
Office of Laboratory Animal Resources (OLAR) personnel provide for husbandry and veterinary care of animals, research and teaching support, and investigator training. The Director of OLAR is a full-time attending veterinarian who is a board certified specialist in laboratory animal medicine (Diplomate, American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine). The OLAR animal facilities are also staffed with a registered veterinary technician, a supervisor who is an American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Laboratory Animal Technologist, eleven animal care technicians with various levels of AALAS technician certification, and two office personnel.
The HSC is registered with the US Department of Agriculture as a research facility and has maintained Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) accreditation since 1967. Animal care and use activities at West Virginia University are overseen by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The Provost acts as the legal Institutional Official on behalf of the University.
For more information on Laboratory Animal Resouces at West Virginia University please visit this link: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/resoff/grants_research/sharedResearchFacilities.asp#LaboratoryAnimalResources
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