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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