Training

The Animal Care Facility (ACF) has several resources to assist in education, animal user training and animal user training certification that can be either downloaded or borrowed. If you have any questions then please contact either the Animal Care Committee Coordinator or the Senior Animal and Plant Care Technician (Jen vandenHeuvel).

Animal User Training Certification:
All animal users must be certified before handling animals, either in the field or in the ACF. Please note that as of September 30th, 2010 all Principal Investigators will have to be certified (regardless of their level of involvement in animal handling).

Certification for invertebrate users requires:

• completing the tests associated with Core Modules.
• other modules and/or methods depending on the species being used
• learning the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the area of the ACF needed
• reviewing the SOPs on site with the Senior Animal and Plant Care Technician.

Certification for vertebrate users requires:

• completing the tests associated with Core and Vivarium modules
• learning the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the area of the ACF needed
• reviewing the SOPs on site with the Senior Animal and Plant Care Technician.

The CCAC's Experimental Animal User Training Program modules are available here:
www.ccac.ca/en/training/modules/
Users are not required to take all module examinations at the same time. The suggested course of study is to do two to four modules at a time until the course is completed.

The pass requirement for all examinations is a grade of >70%. The animal user training examinations can be arranged between the user and the ACF staff at a time of mutual convenience. Click on this link to arrange a time to write the examinations or to review SOP’s with the Senior Animal Care Technician.

Once the user training has been successfully completed, copies of your animal user training certificate will be issued to you and, if applicable, to your supervisor (the original is kept on file with animal care). The St. FX Animal User Training Certificate is good for life, but you are required to review the relevant SOP's with ACF staff on at least an annual basis. If you need a replacement copy of your certificate then please contact the Animal Care Committee coordinator.

Resources:
Animal Care Facility also has copies of all CCAC guidelines and policy statements as well as a short video Respect with Reason, which explains the role of the Canadian Council on Animal Care. Contact the Animal Care Facility if you need access to any of these resources.
The CCAC website also has numerous links to resources and is updated frequently with new information.