Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare
OPRR REPORTS
The Animal Welfare Division of OPRR was renamed Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) in 2000.
October 14, 1994
Subject: National Survey of Laboratory Animal Use, Facilities,
and Resources
Dear Colleague:
This letter is to provide Public Health Service (PHS) awardee
institutions with advance information regarding an upcoming, momentous
event: The National Survey of Laboratory Animal Use, Facilities,
and Resources. The last National Institutes of Health (NIH) survey
of laboratory animal facilities and resources was published in
1980, reporting data collected in 1978. Now, the NIH has developed
a new survey, which will soon be distributed to all PHS awardee
institutions. The survey instrument was produced by an ad hoc
NIH committee and approved by the Office of Management and Budget.
Three points are of special importance regarding this new National
Survey:
- the Survey is being conducted by a private organization, Advanced
Resource Technologies Incorporated (ARTI), under contract to the
NIH;
- survey responses will be completely anonymous; and
- the greater the level of response, the more meaningful the
results.
The National Survey is not an OPRR activity. Staff of OPRR
served on the ad hoc committee that developed the survey instrument,
our mailing list of Institutional Officials and Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committees have been provided to ARTI, and
we look forward eagerly to the survey report and data analysis.
Be assured, however, that the raw data provided through completion
of the survey instrument will not be viewed by anyone other than
ARTI staff. This provision of the contract, along with the complete
anonymity of the survey, were requested specifically in hopes
that the greatest number of institutions would respond, and in
the most thorough and forthright manner.
The Survey will be initiated soon by a letter to the Institutional
Official of each PHS awardee institution, requesting that s/he
identify an individual within that institution to whom the survey
instrument(s) should be sent. OPRR strongly encourages all institutions
to respond promptly and completely. The aggregated information
you provide will be of great value to the biomedical research
community and this Office in reviewing existing policies and procedures,
as well as in the planning of future activities that continue
to enhance the welfare of laboratory animals.
Sincerely,
Gary B. Ellis, Ph.D.
Director
John G. Miller, D.V.M.
Deputy Director
Director, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare
Office of Extramural Research,
Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health
RKL 1, Suite 360
6705 Rockledge Dr.
Bethesda, MD 20892-7982
(For express or hand-delivered mail use zip code 20817)
Telephone (301) 496-7163
olaw@od.nih.gov
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