Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO)

The Animal Care and Use Review Office (ACURO), a component of the USAMRDC Office of Research Protections (ORP), implements the animal care and use policies of USAMRDC. While the ACURO is located organizationally at the USAMRDC in Fort Detrick, Maryland, ACURO's responsibility for laboratory animal welfare extends beyond Fort Detrick to a large number of recipients of USAMRDC managed contracts and grants involving animals.

Specific ACURO responsibilities include:

• Implementation of USAMRDC Animal Care and Use Policies
• Review of animal use proposals and protocols
• Evaluation for compliance with USAMRDC and DOD Policies and other applicable standards
• Reporting of USAMRDC animal use
• Site visits to institutions receiving USAMRMC support and funding

USAMRDC 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 USAMRDC managed contract or grant.

Requirements for Contracts, Grants and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements includes information 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.