IACUC Guideline 3 - Rules for the Care of Vertebrate Animals Containing Radioactive Material

Prior to beginning work with radioactive material in animals, laboratory supervisors must obtain approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the University Isotopes Committee (UIC).

All animal housing and animal housing facilities must meet or surpass the standards set forth in "The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" published by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR). This Guide is a publication of the National Research Council's Commission on Life Sciences.

All animal husbandry carried out by the research personnel must be documented and approved by the IACUC. Training materials and training may be requested from the Office of Research Protections.

All hands-on care of animals containing radioactive material must be provided by the laboratory research personnel performing this research. These researchers must have training in the general use of radioactive material by EHS and specific training related to radioactive animal care by the laboratory's radioactive materials supervisor. This training must include specific instructions requiring that laboratory staff:

• Clearly identify with "Caution - Radioactive Material" labels the cages of animals that contain radioactive material. Signs must be posted indicating whether or not animal-care technicians are responsible for the care of the non-radioactive animals,
• Sharps used to deliver radioactive materials to animals must be disposed of in sharps containers that have also been labeled for radioactive waste,
• Perform all feeding and cleaning of animals,
• Clean and decontaminate cages and facilities,
• Perform regular contamination surveys to prevent the spread of contamination, and to ensure that radiation levels are maintained as low as reasonably achievable,
• Place radioactive animals, animal waste, and animal tissue into zip-lock plastic bags. The bags must be indelibly labeled with "Caution - Radioactive Material", radionuclide, activity, date, supervisor's name, and the mass of the contents. To facilitate storage, this radioactive waste must then be frozen in the smallest practical container,
• Autoclave all paper and plastic animal-contaminated waste prior to placing this material in EHS radioactive waste containers,
• Add bleach, at a 10% final volume, to all liquid waste containers that will contain biological waste prior to placing biological waste in the container,
• Contact EHS for waste collection after a few pounds of frozen waste is collected,
• Package all animal and other wastes for transfer to EHS when research is complete, and
• Contact EHS to perform pre-release surveys to allow reuse of room and equipment.

Penn State's Animal Resource Program laboratory animal care technicians, who may not handle radioactive animals, are taught that radioactive animals, and the waste from such animals, must only be handled by approved laboratory researchers. Animal care technicians who work in the area where radioactive animals are used receive annual instruction in these requirements by EHS staff or by the animal care technician supervisor. Animal care technicians retain responsibility for general room cleaning such as the sanitizing of the sinks, floors, etc., but are not allowed to clean the cages of animals that contain radioactive material.

First approved by the IACUC on 4/12/1999 and by the UIC on 2/9/1999
Last revised by the IACUC on 11/12/2007 and by the UIC on 11/10/2009
Last approved by the IACUC on 12/12/2011 and by the UIC on 11/29/2011