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AAALAC international agricultural animal research program accreditation at Purdue University: “The good, the bad, and the ugly”
Admittedly, most production animal researchers at Purdue where scared when Purdue decided to move forward with with AAALAC International Agricultural Animal Research Program accreditation. Two main concerns dominated: 1) How would AAALAC deal with the unique issues of animals in a production setting versus a laboratory setting? And 2) Would AAALAC accreditation interfere with our research? Particular emphasis was placed on cost of accreditation in terms of making or keeping programs compliant, facility maintenance, enhanced workload on researches and the possibility of excessive or “unnecessary” oversight. As we navigated through the accreditation process we found that expense was manageable and that if the program was well run already it easily fit within the AAALAC guidelines and if improvements were needed it helped to have the need for accreditation as the reason to force the necessary improvements. We also found that AAALAC itself was willing to have open discussions about issues specific to production animal research and work with Purdue to create solutions to any issues. Today, AAALAC accreditation and maintenance of our accreditation status allows Purdue to promote and advertise our high standards for research and animal care across all species, demonstrate our commitment to public accountability, lobby the university for continuous improvement and market our accreditation to federal and industry funding sources.
Keywords: AAALAC accreditation, Purdue, welfare