The Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) is the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) for the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H). It is charged with certifying that all research utilizing animal subjects, or using animal derived materials, conforms to the principles enunciated in the Assurance of Compliance document negotiated between the Health Science Center and the Department of Health and Human Services and to regulations
promulgated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is of utmost importance to note that:
All such research must be submitted to the Committee for review and approval before its initiation.
All such research receives ongoing monitoring by the Committee appropriate to the level of risk involved, but in every instance at least annually.
All modifications to approved research protocols must be submitted to the Committee for review and approval prior to implementation.
The AWC is empowered to approve, modify or disapprove a research project. The AWC is empowered to terminate approval for any research activity that is not conducted in accordance with the methodologies approved or that is associated with unexpected serious harm to subjects. Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees are mandated by Federal law and the Committee reports annually to DHHS on its membership structure and activity.
AWC Meeting & Submission Deadline Dates
AWC meetings are held on the fourth Friday of the month. New animal protocol submissions are due by the first business day the month before it is due to expire in order to account for any delays in obtaining full approval.
**Note: According to federal regulations, all approved animal protocols must be resubmitted to the Animal Welfare Committee for a complete review and approval every 3 years. If you need to resubmit, in addition to a complete protocol application, you MUST include with your submission packet, a progress report that includes the following:
justification of the need for reapproval
brief summary of what has been accomplished
any unanticipated problems experienced thus far during the study
any unexpected deaths of animals
copies of any abstracts or publications resulting from this work
