AAALAC Accreditation Requirements

AAALAC accreditation requirements are the standards and recurring obligations AAALAC International sets for an institution to earn, and then keep, accredited status for its animal care and use program. They cover three things: which reference standard the program is measured against, what an institution must submit and undergo to be evaluated, and what it must keep doing afterward to stay accredited. For background on AAALAC International itself — its history, voluntary status, and relationship to the Animal Welfare Act and PHS Policy — see the AAALAC International term; this entry focuses specifically on the requirements themselves.

The primary standard: the Guide

AAALAC does not write its own husbandry rules. Instead it evaluates programs against externally authored reference standards — principally the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Research Council/National Academies Press, 8th edition), the same document PHS Policy requires PHS-funded institutions to base their Animal Welfare Assurance on. Programs involving agricultural species in a research or teaching context are also measured against the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching (the Ag Guide), and programs located outside North America are additionally measured against European Convention ETS 123. Meeting the applicable Guide’s recommendations, not merely the Animal Welfare Act’s or PHS Policy’s regulatory minimums, is the substantive core of every other requirement below.

Requirements to achieve initial accreditation

• Program Description. The institution prepares a detailed Program Description addressing four required components: animal care and use program management and oversight (including its IACUC or equivalent oversight body), animal environment/housing/management, veterinary care, and physical plant.
• Application and fee. The Program Description is submitted with a formal accreditation application and the applicable fee.
• Site visit. A team of two or more AAALAC representatives — typically working veterinarians and scientists serving as volunteer ad hoc consultants — conducts an on-site review: a document review, a full facility tour to observe animals and housing, and discussions with personnel and protocol holders. It is run as a collegial peer review, not a regulatory inspection.
• Council on Accreditation decision. AAALAC’s Council on Accreditation, which meets three times a year (January, May, and September), reviews the site-visit findings and Program Description and makes the final accreditation decision. Institutions are typically notified within four to eight weeks of the relevant Council meeting.

Requirements to maintain accreditation

Accreditation is not a one-time credential; it has to be actively maintained on an ongoing cycle:

• Annual Report. Every accredited institution must submit an Annual Report each year, using a form AAALAC makes available online each December, describing current program status and any changes — new facilities, species, personnel, or procedures — made since the last full review. This applies in every year, including years without a scheduled site visit.
• Recurring full site visits. A full re-evaluation site visit, following essentially the same process as the initial visit, is held roughly every three years to confirm the program still meets the applicable standards.
• Corrective action on Mandatory Items. When a site visit identifies deficiencies, the Council classifies them by severity. Serious deficiencies (“Mandatory Items”) must be corrected, typically with evidence submitted back to AAALAC on a defined timeline, for the institution to retain Full Accreditation; less serious findings are typically noted as suggestions for improvement rather than conditions of continued accreditation.

How this differs from the statutory requirements

AAALAC’s requirements are layered on top of, not a substitute for, an institution’s mandatory legal obligations. The Animal Welfare Act (enforced by USDA APHIS) and PHS Policy (administered by NIH’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare as a condition of PHS funding) apply regardless of accreditation status and carry their own inspection, Assurance, and semiannual program-review requirements. AAALAC’s Program Description, site-visit, Annual Report, and Mandatory Item requirements are entirely separate and voluntary — an institution can be fully AWA- and PHS Policy-compliant without ever meeting AAALAC’s requirements, and meeting AAALAC’s requirements does not itself satisfy either statute; institutions typically run all three in parallel through the same IACUC-based oversight structure. See AAALAC vs. IACUC and AAHRPP vs. AAALAC for how these requirements relate to other oversight bodies, and IACUC training requirements for the personnel-training side of program compliance.

References

• AAALAC International, “Steps to Earning Accreditation” (aaalac.org/accreditation-program/steps-to-earning-accreditation/)
• AAALAC International, “Rules of Accreditation” (aaalac.org/accreditation-program/rules-of-accreditation/)
• AAALAC International, “Policies” and “FAQs” (aaalac.org/accreditation-program)
• Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, National Research Council, 8th edition