U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Finding Literature on Animal Use Alternatives

This one-hour online training, presented by Technical Information Specialists from the National Agricultural Library’s Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC), provides an introduction of how to conduct a literature search for animal use alternatives using bibliographic databases. The regulations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) require investigators to provide Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) with documentation demonstrating that alternatives to procedures that may cause more than momentary pain or distress to the research animals have been considered and that activities do not unnecessarily duplicate previous experiments.  

By the end of this training, attendees will be able to:   

  • Discuss an overview of the AWA 

  • Define the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement) alternatives 

  • Describe the steps for completing an alternatives literature search 

  • Identify resources available through AWIC 

Attendees are not expected to have any prior knowledge of animal use alternatives to be successful in this training.  

Upcoming Sessions

Title Date Times Register

No Sessions Scheduled