Animal Care Service Costs – per diems
As of January 2023 per diems will be charged for providing animal care. Recommendations for establishing animal care costs in North America follow the guidelines from the NIH though subsidization rates vary by institution, researcher (internal versus external), and source of funding (private versus state or federal funding). Percent of costs are approximately 30% of full costs for internal users and 50% for external users. Priority to failities will be given first to internal users. All users must comply with VIU ACC requirements (merit and ACC reviews according to CCAC guidelines) and have an approved AUP. Note fish, rodent, and amphibian charges are based on tank or cage.
As of November 30, 2022 full cost per diem rates are the following:
- standard mouse (3$/day/cage) – Not Currently Supported
- standard rat (5$/day/cage) – Not Currently Supported
- standard zebrafish (2 to 8$/day/tank depending on volume) – Not Currently Supported
- large aquarium (10$/d/tank)
- small round tank < 250l (20$/day/tank)
- medium round tank < 1500l (40$/day/tank)
- large round tank < 5000l (80$/day/tank)
- extra large tank > 5000l (160$/day/tank) – Not Currently Supported
The following services are included in the per diem rate
- Routine and standard husbandry - Routine cage/tank changes
- Routine animal health care - Minor conditions care/treatment
- Daily animal health checks - Routine sentinel program
- Animal carcass or tissue disposal - Sharps containment and disposal
- Standard environmental enrichment - Training & protocol development
- Routine facility inspections & maintenance - Routine billing
The following are not included in the per diem rate
- Quarantine assays / disease screening - Testing of external animals
- Special husbandry requests - Special PPE requests
- Research-related necropsies - Animal shipping fees
- Animal import or export fees - Special invoicing requests (e.g., EDR request)
- Special housing requests (e.g., different tank dimensions)
- Emergency care or treatment resulting from research activities
- Extra changes related to protocol (e.g., special enrichment)
- Research support activities (injections, drug administration, anesthesia, surgery, etc.)
- Initial set up (estimated 3X per diem rate calculated above plus new supplies)
- Common rates for these items are based on cost recovery of additional supplies (actual cost) and additional labour (Technician m-f 30$/hr; Technician weekend 45$/hr; Veterinarian 110$/hr)