U of S Champion of Animal Care Receives Outstanding Service Award
Posted March 09, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, March 9, 2006
2006-03-09-WCVM
U of S Champion of Animal Care Receives Outstanding Service Award
Dr. Ernie Olfert, director of the Animal Resources Centre at the University
of Saskatchewan, will receive the Outstanding Service Award on March 11 from
the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) for his seminal contributions to
improving the care and use of research animals.
"Dr. Olfert's work is an example of how our university research community
not only meets international standards, but can help create the standards
for the world to follow," says Steven Franklin, U of S vice-president
research.
"Dr. Olfert was the driving force behind the CCAC Guide for the Care and Use
of Experimental Animals and the CCAC guidelines on: choosing an appropriate
endpoint that are now recognized as international reference documents," says
CCAC Executive Director Dr. Clément Gauthier."His most important
legacy to future generations in Canada and elsewhere in the world is a
series of web-based modules for animal users."
The award, to be presented at an awards banquet in Ottawa, is the CCAC's
highest honour, recognizing Olfert's contributions to the field over a
career spanning more than 35 years.
He literally helped "write the book" on animal care, as lead editor of the
CCAC Guide for the Care and Use of Experimental Animals. Published in 1993
in English and translated into French and Spanish, this seminal publication
remains the CCAC "bible" for animal care policies and procedures. His own
in-depth knowledge of animal care, together with his skillful collaboration
with other expert contributors on the project, produced a nationally and
internationally acclaimed reference work.
On the education front, Olfert co-authored 11 of CCAC's 12 web-based
training modules published in 2003 for animal users, and helped market the
package. These modules, originally developed to help Canadian institutions
implement CCAC guidelines on institutional animal user training, have had
impact far beyond Canada's borders. This work has helped put Canada in a
lead position to advance the harmonization of training standards for animal
users around the world.
On the local level, Olfert has received awards for his tireless volunteer
activities. This includes the Saskatchewan SPCA, where he has served on the
board of directors for many years. He is also a long time participant in the
Saskatoon Regional Science Fair, volunteering as a judge for safety, animal
use and ethics.
CCAC has bestowed its highest honour only once before, in 2003, to Dr. Harry
Rowsell. Dr. Rowsell was the first professor and head of the department of
veterinary pathology at the U of S Western College of Veterinary Medicine,
and CCAC's first executive director.
CCAC is the national peer review agency responsible for setting and
maintaining standards for the care and use of animals used in research,
teaching, and testing. It acts to ensure, through programs of education,
assessment and guideline development, that the use of animals for these
purposes takes place under the best physical and psychological care. It also
promotes increased awareness of and sensitivity to the ethical principles
involved in the care of research animals.
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For more information, contact:
Michael Robin
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
Claude Charbonneau
Canadian Council on Animal Care
(613) 238-4031 ext. 32
ccharbonneau@ccac.ca
www.ccac.ca
