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Animal Purchasing and Transportation
Guidelines regarding research animal purchasing and shipping procedures at Penn State.
Procedures for Purchasing or Importing Animals
- All purchases or other shipments of (live) animals to be housed in Animal Resource Program (ARP) facilities must be processed through the ARP office. Investigators are not allowed to order animals through their departments using purchase orders.
- Departmental purchasing staff who have questions about purchase orders should contact the ARP office at 865-1495. For example, purchase orders that include any of the following terms may indicate live animals are included in the order:
- Microinjection
- Pronuclear injection
- Transgenic
- Knock-out or knock-in
- Targeted mutant
- KOMP (Knock out mouse project)
- Investigators who wish to order animals from approved
commercial suppliers must complete and return an Animal
Care Request (ACR) Form (rtf
or pdf
format) to the ARP office.
- Animals obtained from non-approved sources, including importation from other research institutions, require special arrangements for shipping and quarantine procedures made through the ARP veterinary staff.
- Remember to allow sufficient time for animals to acclimate to their new surroundings after arrival at Penn State before starting any experimental work.
Approved Animal Sources
The following commercial vendors are approved animal suppliers:
- Charles River
- Harlan
- Taconic
- Jackson Laboratories
Non-approved Animal Sources
These include all commercial vendors not listed above and laboratory animal facilities associated with other colleges or universities and private companies. If you are planning to import animals from a non-approved source please go to the Importation of Animals to Penn State from Other Institutions portion of this website.
Quarantine for Imported Animals
All laboratory animals arriving on the Penn State University Park campus from non-approved animal sources must undergo a period of quarantine in a protected area of the animal facility. This period allows the animal(s) to recover from the stress of shipment and to be screened for clinical health problems and infection with pathogenic organisms to prevent introduction of disease to the animal facility. The quarantine period will be dependent on the animal species, source and health status.
Transportation of animals to and from the University Park campus or within campus facilities must be arranged through the ARP.
Exportation of Animals to Other Research Facilities
Investigators who wish to export research animals from Penn State to another research facility must complete an Animal Export form and submit it to the ARP.
