Animal Welfare Information Center resources
The 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act established the Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC), an information service at USDA's National Agricultural Library. AWIC’s mission is to provide information pertinent to employee training that could prevent unintended duplication of animal experimentation and on improved research methods that could reduce or replace animal use or minimize pain and distress to animals (7 USC § 2143(e)).
In 2024 and 2025, AWIC continued to strengthen its support for the toxicology community by offering information on alternative methods in ecotoxicity testing and by maintaining resources that highlight mandatory and regulatory testing guidelines across federal agencies. The 3Rs in Ecotoxicity Testing webpage features curated searches for NAMs in the PubAg and PubMed databases, as well as a bibliography that was updated in September 2025 and provides access to nearly 800 abstracts on alternative testing approaches.
AWIC’s website received substantial use during this two-year period, with 308,733 visitors generating 542,858 page views. These users accessed a variety of materials designed to facilitate the identification and application of animal use alternatives, especially within toxicology and related research disciplines.
In addition to online resources, AWIC engaged directly with the scientific and regulatory communities through presentations, posters, workshops, webinars, and conference exhibits. Across 40 outreach events in 2024 and 2025, AWIC interacted with approximately 3,191 animal researchers, veterinarians, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee members, and others. These engagements emphasized best practices for conducting comprehensive literature searches, locating current research on alternative methods, and applying 3Rs principles within testing and experimentation, including toxicology contexts.
AWIC also continued to offer its workshops on meeting the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. These sessions provided attendees with guidance on where to find literature and resources on the 3Rs, instruction on database literature search techniques (e.g., search syntax), and demonstrations of how to conduct literature searches to address requirements for consideration of NAMs. Four workshops were presented during 2024 and 2025, reaching a total of 927 participants. For those unable to attend live sessions, AWIC maintained access to online, on-demand training through its events webpage.