Regional Committees Activities for America

Report from the Encontro Regional da Sociedade Brasileira de Ciéncia em Animais de Laboratório 2019

See here the report from Claudia Madalena Cabrera Mori who attended a course in Brazil in March 2018

FESSACAL ASSEMBLY  2018
The FESSACAL + FESAHANCCCAL assembly was held during the 15th SBCAL-ICLAS Congress. You can see here a summary of this important meeting of these affiliate and scientific ICLAS members.

Activities related to travel awards

• AALAS national meeting awards
  Sponsors: LabDiet, Charles River, Lab Products
• Information about the ARC Travel Award to the AALAS Meeting
• The Americas Regional Committee Travel Award program provides opportunities for 3 laboratory animal scientists from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean to attend the national meeting of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. The 2016 meeting was held October 29 – November 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.  The costs of transportation, lodging, and meals were covered by generous sponsors: Lab Products, Inc, PMI LabDiet, and Charles River.  AALAS donated meeting registration fees, and AAALAC provided a luncheon at which the recipients were honored and received plaques of recognition. Dr. Glicerio Ignacio of the University of North Carolina provided the awardees a private tour of the university research animal facilities.  The 2016 awardees were Dr. Isabel Quadros of Argentina (representing FESSACAL), Dr. Humberto Morris of Cuba (representing ACCMAL), and Dr. Hector Sandoval of Mexico (representing Latin America).
  Here is the reaction of Dr. Morris to his experience as a Travel Award recipient:”Thank you very much for the possibility of attending to this excellent meeting! Dr. Chandra Williams announced a vibrant schedule of seminars, special topic lectures, workshops and panel discussions and the meeting surpassed any expectative. I sincerely thank ICLAS-ARC for this fabulous opportunity given to young specialists devoted to laboratory animal science in our region of exploring and discovering new concepts and ideas on lab animals, to access to educational prospects and for interacting with commercial meeting partners providing technical information through their presentations. A significant space was opened for building bridges in laboratory animal science in the Americas region. I personally enjoyed the visit to animal facilities in the David H. Murdock Research Institute at the Research Campus of North Carolina guided by Dr. Glicerio Ignacio. I learned a lot and for the first time, I saw non-human primates’ facilities.On the other hand, I felt so excited with the Awards Presentation Ceremony held at the Westin Hotel organized by AALAS, AAALAC International and ICLAS. I will never forget this experience!! I greatly appreciate the support given by Charles River Laboratories through the CHARTER Program and the occasion for meeting Dr. Marilyn Brown and Dr. Guy Mulder and to know more about their efforts in promoting animal welfare and the 3Rs implementation. I met so many people active in this field. Now, I have the responsibility of disseminating the acquired knowledge to my colleagues of the Cuban Society of Laboratory Animal Science as well as to our students at both graduate and post-graduate levels.Finally, I´m in loved of the “Queen city”, Charlotte, and its fantastic people!!

Activities to Encourage activities that promote LAS

• Promote educational meetings, workshops, symposia
  • Disseminate information via email, web, publications
  • Help by promoting mentorship (places with successful programs mentor others new to putting on programs)
• Publicize scientific publications and web communications
• Assist with educational exchanges
  • Provide information on successful programs
  • Publicize opportunities
  • Suggest where such exchanges might be created
• Promote development of certification activities and programs
  NOTE: work with ICLAS Education Committee on this goal

Activities to Encourage participation from all countries in the region

• Maintain and update contacts in each country
• Encourage communication between members (web, email, publications, visits)
• Survey member nations to learn their needs and how the ARC can assist
  • Hold open forum sessions at national and regional meetings
  • Survey via email web

Activities to Promote Latin America LAS seminars at national AALAS meeting

• Procure funding to assist participants
• Advertise the sessions