The "Vertebrate Animals" attachment is required if they are included in the application at any of the performance sites.

There are no page or word limits for this section, however, NIH guidance specifically states: "Do not use this attachment to circumvent the page limits of the Research Strategy".

NIH Guidance:

• NIH Application Guide - Vertebrate Animals
• NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) - Website
• NIH Vertebrate Animals Section - Worksheet & Checklist
• OLAW: What Investigators Need To Know

Content:

Each of the following criteria must be addressed. Failure to adequately address the criteria may negatively affect the application's impact score.

1. Description of Procedures:

• Provide a concise description of the proposed procedures to be used that involve live vertebrate animals in the work outlined in the "Research Strategy" attachment. The description must include sufficient detail to allow evaluation of the procedures.
• Identify the species, strains, ages, sex, and total numbers of animals by species, to be used in the proposed work.
• If dogs or cats are proposed, provide the source of the animals.

2. Justifications:

• Provide justification that the species are appropriate for the proposed research.
• Explain why the research goals cannot be accomplished using an alternative model (e.g. computational, human, invertebrate, in vitro).

3. Minimization of Pain and Distress:

• Describe the interventions including analgesia, anesthesia, sedation, palliative care and humane endpoints that will be used to minimize discomfort, distress, pain, and injury.

In addition to the 3 criteria above, you should also:

• Identify all project performance (or collaborating) sites and describe the proposed research activities with vertebrate animals that will be conducted at those sites.
• Explain when and how animals are expected to be used if plans for the use of animals have not been finalized.

LRI Contacts:

Department of Comparative Medicine: Jennifer Wilk, DVM, DACLAM -  jenwilk@lhs.org
Regulatory Compliance: Paul Newton, JD - pnewton@lhs.org

Templates and Examples: