Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO)
The Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO), a component of the USAMRMC Office of Research Protections (ORP), implements the animal care and use policies of USAMRMC. While the ACURO is located organizationally at the USAMRMC in Fort Detrick, Maryland, ACURO's responsibility for laboratory animal welfare extends beyond Fort Detrick to a large number of recipients of USAMRMC managed contracts and grants involving animals.
Specific ACURO responsibilities include:
- Implementation of USAMRMC Animal Care and Use Policies
- Review of animal use proposals and protocols
- Evaluation for compliance with USAMRMC and DOD Policies and other applicable standards
- Reporting of USAMRMC animal use
- Site visits to institutions receiving USAMRMC support and funding
USAMRMC and the Department of Defense animal use policy applies to any live vertebrate animal, which is being used or is intended for use in a DOD animal care and use program or to any recipient of a USAMRMC managed contract or grant.
Regulations, Standards & Requirements
- Compliance with USAMRMC policy requires familiarity with each of these documents. This section briefly describes each one and includes a link to the full text.
Requirements for Contracts, Grants and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements
- Information in this section is relevant to the investigator submitting an animal use appendix to USAMRMC. As the ACURO office reviews the animal use appendix, there are common areas that frequently require additional information or clarification. We have tried to highlight those areas in this section.