The Animal Resources Centre at McGill University is composed of several units, one of which is the Veterinary Care Services (VCS). VCS is responsible for providing Laboratory Animal Care and for ensuring that welfare and humane use of experimental animals complies with all relevant national, provincial and institutional policies. McGill University’s animal care and use program is accredited by the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

Mandate

• The VCS unit provides the veterinary care and expertise necessary to ensure optimal standards of animal welfare and use for animals used in research, teaching and testing.
• To promote awareness and integrity when using live animals while fostering collegiate relationships with the research community.
• To unify the realms of biomedical research and veterinary medicine to facilitate the output of optimal quality science.
• To act as a resource for consultation and training for faculty, students and staff.

Who are we?

• VCS is staffed with licensed laboratory animal veterinarians and veterinary technicians certified by the Canadian Association for Laboratory Animal Science (CALAS)

What is Comparative Medicine?

It is the branch of veterinary medicine that includes the study of:

• naturally occurring and experimental animal models of human disease
• etiopathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnosis, therapy and prevention of infectious and non infectious diseases of laboratory animals
• normal biology of laboratory animals
• research applications and related biotechnologies

We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please contact us at arc.info@mcgill.ca for more information on items included on our web site or on any other animal related issue.

All our forms are available on VCS Forms page. To contact us, proceed to VCS Contacts page. For prices, see VCS Rates page.