Basic Level

If the category of invasiveness is "A", no approval is needed. "A" level includes studies or experiments on most invertebrates or no entire living material (such as insects, eggs, animal tissue or skin). Also "A" level is no-contact studies such as bird watching.

All "B", "C" and "D" category of invasiveness using vertebrates and higher cephalopods require approval prior to starting the project. 

To obtain approval, the Animal Use Protocol form must be completed and approved by the Facility Animal Care Committee (FACC) via the on-line Darwin software. If you do not have access yet, please submit a request via this Webform.

The submitted protocol, or amendment, is reviewed by members of the FACC. This committee ensures that the institution's as well as the CCAC guidelines and policies are followed. The membership includes: at least two faculty members, a veterinarian, a community representative, an institutional member not using or depending on animals, a technical staff representative, research ethics officer and a graduate student.

The protocol will either be:

• approved as is,
• the committee makes recommendations for specific changes before approval is given,
• it is not approved

Know that once approved, a project can still be halted under certain conditions. If an animal is found to be experiencing unrelenting pain and distress, the FACC and Veterinarian have the authority to have the animals euthanized and/or terminate the procedures.

All projects must show proof of potential benefit for humans and/or animals to justify using living animals. This is achieved when a recognized peer-reviewed agency (such as CIHR and NSERC) awards a grant for the project. Applications for grants are very competitive and only the very best get funded. Note: the agency's name and grant title must appear in the funding section of the animal use protocol.

If the project is funded by a non-peer-reviewed source OR if the investigator would like to start the project before the funding by a peer-reviewed agency is awarded, the researcher can request internal peer review from the Associate Dean of his/her Faculty or from the Associate Director of the Research Institute of his/her Affiliated Hospital.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedures. There are procedures that are used often and the details have been written down in order to help investigators with the details concerning each of them. These SOPs are already approved by the institution and the CCAC and this helps in maintaining a high standard and speed up protocol review. Another important point is that each procedure and animal is treated the same way.

The SOPs are downloadable from the Standard Operating Procedures section of this website.

The entire process should take about a month in order for the Facility Animal Care Committee to review and meet, corrections be made by the investigator if necessary and final processing be done. 

Approval is valid for 1 year.

On the Animal Use Protocol form, the principal investigator must agree to the statement:

"“The information in this application is exact and complete. I declare that all care and use of animals in this proposal will be in accordance with the guidelines and policies of the Canadian Council on Animal Care and those of McGill University. I shall request the Animal Care Committee’s approval prior to any deviations from this protocol as approved. I understand that this approval is valid for one year and must be renewed on an annual basis. Approval from the committee does not guarantee availability of space, equipment and services; contact the animal facility supervisor for requirement. Everyone listed in the protocol must have read the Animal Use Protocol's sections pertinent to what they are mandated to perform.”"

Everyone listed in the personnel section for the project must have read the approved protocol and respect the above mentioned agreement.

The items that present the most problems when a protocol gets reviewed by the Facility Animal Care Committees are:

• Section “5- Keywords of Procedures” = keywords only, not sentences. Why? A report is sent every year to the CCAC and this is the format they have requested.
• Section “19- Justification For Number Requested” = total numbers of animals stated in the table must be the same as the totals described in the justification of animal numbers section. Basically, what is needed for the animal number justification, is the simple arithmetic on how the totals in the table were arrived at.
• Section 27 - Questions relate to material that can be hazardous to humans and/or animals.  Include carcinogens, transplantable tumours, radioactive isotopes.
• Section “31- Adverse Effects and Humane Intervention Points” = As known as “Clinical endpoint”:  can be defined as the point at which an experimental animal's pain and/or distress is terminated, minimized or reduced by taking actions such as humanely killing the animal, terminating a painful procedure, or giving treatment or relieve pain and/or distress" The importance of clear and measurable criteria for the clinical endpoint is because the animal user must know exactly at what point, the animal's distress has become unacceptable and action must be taken to end its suffering. Specific clinical criteria is needed, statements such as "if the animals is sick..." or "the technician takes care of the animal's health" are not acceptable. Good criteria: % of weight loss, maximum tumour size, absence of grooming and anything that can be expected when doing the experiments.
• Section “32- Description of Procedures” = It is important to include experimental endpoints which is defined as the estimated survival time for the animals.
• Section “29- Euthanasia" = if using a physical method of euthanasia without the use of anesthesia, it must be justified.