Wartburg’s campus is listed with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship as a licensed animal welfare facility.  We are also registered with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) for all warm blooded animals other than birds, lab mice, and lab rats.  APHIS registration involves submission of annual reports and annual inspections. 

In keeping with APHIS requirements, the documents that guide the committee’s animal welfare decisions include:

• Title 9, Chapter 1, Subchapter A of the Code of Federal Regulations, 2009
• The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, 2011

The primary objectives of these documents are to ensure:
1) appropriate housing for animal subjects.
2) that researchers have carefully considered the applicability of their animal model.
3) that appropriate numbers of animals are used.
4) that animals are euthanized in an ethical manner.
5) that pain and distress to animal subjects is minimized.
6) that all research using vertebrate animals is overseen by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the researcher’s institution.