BRF Update - July 2019
Have your say – the future of animal research
A number of sessions were held across UQ campuses, including TRI to gather feedback on the future of animal research, including UQBR’s operations and services. Only a small number of researchers attended these sessions and provided feedback, so a survey has been put together to try and gather more input:
If you have not provided feedback thus far please do complete this survey to help enable strategic planning for UQ’s animal facilities, including the TRI BRF.
Bedding/food/water changes – to be cost-recovered in 2020
The BRF currently perform a number of technical services without cost recovery in the research wing, in particular changing caging over to special types of bedding, fasting animals or providing special food or water. Starting in 2020 the technical time to perform these services will be billed in alignment with the rest of our technical services – currently $55 per hour. The time spent on these services is included in the regular monthly bills but without a charge so please take note of the estimated costs in preparation for this change.
Spare experimental animals – colony health screening
We are sending spare live animals for our regular health monitoring on Monday next week. If you have any spare experimental animals at all that you do not need, please advise us ASAP so that we can include them in the health testing and gather information on the animal holding areas in 1077, 1076 and 1075.
Congratulation to Renee Lanham – Gnotobiotic Animal Technical Officer
Renee has been formally appointed as a Gnotobiotic Animal Technical Officer - she has been doing a fantastic job in an acting role for the gnotobiotics facility. We are looking forward to her ongoing work in this area, she is particularly good at problem solving logistics for new techniques – congratulations Renee!
1067 room/space bookings
For clarity and to avoid clashes the booking options have changed for 1067 on PPMS. You should be able to book either the ‘1067 surgery area (not fume cupboard)’ or ‘Fume cupboard only 1067’. If you cannot see both these options please email [email protected] to have your PPMS account updated.
Paul Flecknell webinar Monday 16th September 3.45pm
UQ Biological Resources would like to invite you to a Live webinar series with Guest Speaker Professor Paul Flecknell. Professor Paul Flecknell will be presenting for all ‘Queensland Animal Research & Teaching Ethics Group’ (QARTEG) member institutes. These webinars are relevant to everyone with responsibilities for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes, and individuals on Animal Ethics Committees. There are two locations available to attend the LIVE Webinars including TRI.
The topics covered will be:
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Pain and Distress - Completed
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Harm-Benefit and Refinements (Completed 8th July 2019)
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Animal Monitoring – monitoring conduct of procedures and post approval monitoring (16th September 2019)
About Paul Flecknell - Paul is a Laboratory Animal Medicine and Veterinary Anaesthesia specialist, publishing over 100 scientific papers, review/book chapters in the area of anaesthesia and pain management. He has also developed free online training such as Flaire Learning. Since retiring he is now working as a consultant specialising in education and training. Further details are available here. All UQBR Staff and Researchers are welcome to attend, we hope to see you there!
As always, please do not hesitate to let us know of any queries or concerns at all.
