Animal Ordering or Imports

An active Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approved protocol is required to order animals. Following approval of a protocol, animals may be ordered from commercial sources or imported from other universities. Once animals are obtained, they can only be used for procedures or experiments related to the specific protocol number under which they were ordered. All animal orders from a vendor or imports from another university must be placed through e-Protocol if they will be housed in the University Laboratory Animal Resources (ULAR) facilities.

Worktags

To prevent delays in order approval, proper Worktag combinations must be available in eprotocol. You are encouraged to submit new Worktags in advance using the following link https://go.osu.edu/eprotocolworktags.

Large Animal Orders

For large animal orders (excluding rabbits and rodents, the large animal procurement specialist must be involved if animals will be housed in ULAR facilities. The specialist serves as the liaison between the research team, the animal vendor and the ULAR vivarium team. Contact the specialist in advance of placing an animal order to streamline the process as coordination is needed to ensure animal availability, biosecurity, and housing space to meet the needs of the research model.

Mouse Generation and Support Services

Ohio State has partnered with two commercial vendors to provide genetically-engineered mouse generation and support services. These preferred vendors provide discounted and priority services for the research community and allow for generated mice to be received directly into the animal housing facilities on campus. 

• Once the order request is complete, click “submit request” to forward it for fiscal approval.
  • The correct department fiscal approver must be selected (the PI cannot be selected as the fiscal approver) in order to prevent delays in processing.
• Novel and cryopreserved mice require an animal order submission in e-Protocol.
  • Provide ularimportexport@osu.edu with the vendor contact information at the start of the process to ensure final health reports are provided to the ULAR quality assurance team to prevent delays in the final shipping.
• There are several approval steps that must occur before animals are fully “Ordered”.
  • After department fiscal approval, the request is forwarded for ULAR vivarium approval and the last step is the Office of Research purchasing/Procurement (or-animalpurchasing@osu.edu) or 614-247-6929.
  • Research teams are encouraged to track the progress within e-Protocol by clicking on “history” in the animal order.
    • Automated emails are generated to the contact person listed in the order request as the order progresses through each step.
• Submit orders at least one week ahead of time to allow for processing.
• Deliveries from approved commercial vendors go directly into the housing facility.
  • Large animal vendor delivery schedule:
    • Tuesdays (prioritized)
    • Thursdays (backup option)
  • Rodent Vendor delivery schedule:
    • Monday
      • Covance by Labcorp
      • Envigo
      • The Jackson Laboratory (JAX)
      • National Cancer Institute (NCI)
    • Tuesday
      • Taconic Biosciences
      • Charles River
      • National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• An automated email will be sent to the PI and contact once animals have arrived at Ohio State. Allow time for animals to be received at the housing room.

• The animal order must be submitted in e-Protocol, select “other” as the vendor.  
• The import-export coordinator (ULARImportExport@osu.edu) will contact the sending institution to obtain health information on the animals to be obtained.  
• For new investigators, the IACUC holding protocol can be used to order animals into quarantine while awaiting review/approval of their own IACUC protocol.
  • research activities are limited while on the holding protocol
  • submit a holding protocol request
• Animal orders received from non-commercial vendors are quarantined in a secure facility for approximately 3-4 weeks. 
• Samples will be collected and submitted for Charles River PRIA® testing while animals are under quarantine.
• Once animals have cleared quarantine, an e-Protocol transfer will be submitted by the import-export coordinator and cages will be moved by the ULAR transport specialist into ULAR housing.
• The final housing location will be based on the identified health status, space availability and research need as discussed with the research team.