ACS Per Diem Rates

Animal Care Services is obligated to recover the unsubsidized costs associated with the procurement, care and support of animals used in research or teaching at Texas Tech University. Investigators are billed on a monthly basis for those expenses. Bills are distributed to investigators following the month these charges were incurred. These per diem rates were determined using detailed cost accounting and a survey of the per diem rates charged by many other universities.

All charges are per animal unless specifically listed as a per cage charge. The number of animals housed per cage must conform to the standards established in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Teaching and Research. Animals housed together must be compatible.

*New rates in affect as of 9/1/2022. For purposes of estimating annual costs for research and grant proposals, expect a minimum 3% yearly increase.

**If there is a species/rate that you do not see lised, please contact ACS Facilities Manager for futher information

Included in Per Diems

• Routine and standard husbandry

• Routine cage changes

• Routine animal health care

• Minor conditions care/treatment

• Daily animal health checks

• Routine sentinel program

• Disease outbreak management

• Animal carcass or tissue disposal

• Sharps containment and disposal

• Environmental enrichment

• Colony health management

• Training & protocol development

• Routine facility inspections, maintenance and repairs

• Routine billing

• General necropsy

Special Services at Additional Cost

The following special services are not Included in per diems and are charged back to the PI directly.

Import and export fees

• Non-standard diets and shipping fees

• Temporary caging for sample collection, or extra cage changes beyond ACS standard practices due to research model or protocol requirements (e. g., diabetic mice, breeder cages)

• Quarantine assays

• Quarantine management from unapproved vendors

• Special PPE requests

• Special technical services including drugs, supplies or materials requested by PIs

• Breeding colony management

• Weaning management

The following fees are not included in per diems and are charged as a fee for services in 15 minute increments.

• Emergency care or treatments by veterinarian or vet staff

• Research activities (injections, sample collection, anesthesia, euthanasia, surgical support post-op care, and breeding services) by veterinarian or vet staff

• Research related necropsies

• Special equipment/room installation, storage, or removal costs

• Special husbandry requests (metabolic cage assembly, water bottles, autoclaved water bottles, filling humidifier)

• Special invoicing requests

**If investigators are willing and able to share IVC racks with other investigators, there will not be a dedicated room charge, only per diem. If an investigator requests a dedicatied room, then a room charge plus der diem will be charged.

Increased Biosafety Level (BSLII) Rate Justification

The Animal Facilities are operated by the Animal Care Services (ACS) department, which operates within the Vice President for Research's (VPR) Administrative Unit. The Animal Facilities are operated as a conventional laboratory animal facility, or as an animal BSL II. Each of these increasing increments of Biosafety, however, requires additional safeguards and costs.

Laboratory animals includes rodents, and any small to medium-sized animal that the facility can safely accommodate.

Any animal research conducted in the Animal Facility must first be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC), and by the Director of Animal Care Services. Additional approvals may be required as appropriate for the type of space use anticipated.

Priority for animal research in the Animal Facilities are in the following order:

• BSL-2 animal use
• Conventional laboratory animals
• Animal Quarantine

Investigators may use the procedure spaces as non-dedicated spaces at no charge, however, Investigators must decontaminate each work space after each use. If investigators require specialized equipment or a dedicated procedure/laboratory non-animal space, then a negotiated charge for that space will apply.