Animal Care Committee Occupational Health and Safety When Working with Laboratory Animals

Other ACC Info

Institutions that receive federal funding to conduct animal research must provide an occupational health program for individuals who work with animals. This is a requirement of  the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Workers who work with laboratory animals must be enrolled in the program not on the basis of contact hours or job title, but on the basis of risk associated with the work they perform.

Assessing Risks
We've provided a Risk Assessment Analysis to help give you the information you need to be safe on the job.  Click on the animal(s) that you work with to see a risk assessment typically associated with that species.  Please note that this is intended to supplement, not replace, information and advice you may receive from Employee Health Services, the Office of Research Safety, or the Biosafety Officer nor is it intended to be a complete risk assessment.  This is a starting point only.  Please contact Employee Health Services for information specific to your personal situation.  Everyone should be provided the safest work environment possible.

Information

☼  Letter to researchers/all animal users:  What you need to do to enroll in this mandatory program

☼  The UCHC Occupational Health Program:  Requirements and Guidelines

☼  The University of Connecticut Health Center Occupational Health Surveillance Policy

☼  How to enroll

☼  What is Important to Know When Working with Laboratory Animals

            ◘  Allergies and Asthma

            ◘  Avian Tuberculosis

            ◘  Bites / Scratches / Other Exposures from Laboratory Animals

            ◘  Cat Scratch Disease

            ◘  Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 (Herpes B virus)

            ◘  Cryptosporidiosis

            ◘  Ebola/Marburg/Filoviruses

            ◘  Enteric Pathogenic Bacteria

            ◘  General Information

            ◘  Hanta Virus

            ◘  Leptospirosis

            ◘  Lymphochoriomeningitis Virus

            ◘  Newcastle Disease

            ◘  Physical Injury

            ◘  Psittacosis

            ◘  Staying Healthy in the Animal Facility

            ◘  Toxoplasmosis

            ◘  Tuberculosis

☼  Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 (Herpes B virus) links

            ◘  CDC article with good, general information about this disease and a number of current references.   

            ◘  The National Institutes of Health has a training video on working safety with primates.

            ◘  CDC Recommendations for Prevention and Therapy of Herpes B Virus

            ◘  CDC Resources for Herpes B in Handlers of Macaques

            ◘  Collecting NHP and human samples for processing for Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 exposure at UCHC

☼  Zoonosis information from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

            ◘  Bordatella

            ◘  Brucellosis

            ◘  Campylobacter

            ◘  Cryptosporidiosis

            ◘  Dermatophyte infections

            ◘  Franciscella

            ◘  Giardiasis

            ◘  Hantavirus

            ◘  Pasteurella

            ◘  Plague

            ◘  Q-fever

            ◘  Rabies

            ◘  Salmonellosis

            ◘  Shigellosis

            ◘  Zoonotic parasites of dogs and cats

Reference Books

☼  The NRC publishes animal care guidelines and standards in The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

☼  The NRC publishes OHS guidelines in Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Research Animals

☼  The NRC publishes guidelines in Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Primates

☼  The CDC also publishes guidelines for Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories

☼  The NRC publishes guidelines in Emerging Animal Diseases

☼  The NIH publishes the PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals