The ACQA office oversees monthly IACUC meetings and assists the Attending Veterinarian and the IACUC in developing institutional policies, guidelines, and operating procedures. The ACQA office also coordinates a number of investigator training laboratories.
The College of Veterinary Medicine provides access to a wealth of expertise in a variety of veterinary disciplines including, but not limited to, surgery, pathology, internal medicine, imaging, cardiology, theriogenology, neurology, and ophthalmology. Moreover, MU’s veterinary curriculum also offers many opportunities for CMP trainees to teach, mentor and serve as role models for veterinary students.
The OAR provides veterinary care for all University-owned animals and serves the needs of approximately 300 investigators with over 600 animal care and use protocols. The majority of animal resources are accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, International (AAALAC). The laboratory animal resource infrastructure consists of approximately 82,000 net assignable square feet of space of animal holding and use space and 41,000 square feet of support space for a total of 123,000 square feet. Animals are housed in conventional, barrier, containment (both ABSL-2 and ABSL-3), and quarantine. With Colleges and Schools of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, a wide variety of animal based research and teaching using a number of animal species is performed on the MU campus. Animal species include rodents, dogs, cats, rabbits and other small mammals, cattle, poultry, amphibians and fish. Many animal models at MU have spontaneous or genetically-engineered mutations. When compared to most institutions, MU also has a large population of swine, including genetically engineered swine. Supplemental training with primates can be accomplished through elective rotations at other institutions.
Resource and Research Centers
The MU Metagenomics Center provides a wide range of services associated with the characterization of complex microbial communities including DNA extraction and next-generation sequencing, as well as rederivation of genetically manipulated rodents to generate animals harboring a desired complex microbiota.
These Centers serve as repositories for live colony production, cryopreservation, and quality control of genetically engineered rodents and swine and ensure the continued availability of scientifically valuable, genetically engineered animals to the biomedical research community. These centers provide a unique opportunity for training in colony management and maintenance, genetic assessment and quality control, and distribution of animal models nationally and internationally. These centers also provide alternative live colony maintenance approaches through cryopreservation and cryo-recovery mechanisms. In addition, the NSRRC serves a unique role in that it creates genetically-modified swine models for NIH-funded investigators.
Visit the MU Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Center website.
Visit the MU Rat Resource and Research Center website.
Visit the National Swine Resource and Research Center website.
The LIDR is a regional biocontainment laboratory that provides trainees with the opportunity to gain operational, veterinary, animal welfare, regulatory, safety and research experience in working with BSL-3 and select agents including, but not limited to, Yersinia pestis, Coxiella burnetii, Francisella tularensis, and Bacillusanthracis and Zika Virus.
Trainees also have access to the managing team and resources at IDEXX BioAnalytics, an internationally renowned research animal diagnostic laboratory. The laboratory receives over 2000 animals or animal tissues/month for diagnostic testing.
Quiz Bowls
To access the Quiz Bowl materials from previous AALAS presentations, please email Dr. Bettina Gentry to request a link.