COURSE PREPARATION
The current legislation has 4 categories of persons who may work with animal for scientific research purposes.
Î Category A ‘Persons carrying out procedures’
Î Category B ‘Persons designing projects ‘
Î Category C ‘Persons caring for animals‘
Î Category D ‘Persons who are performing euthanasia alone’
This course is suitable for all these categories but is primarily aimed at categories A and B
P l e a s e r e a d t h e L A S T c o u r s e p r o g r a m m e and visit this website: http://tinyurl.com/nvm97h9
Please work through the tasks onn the site site. Knowledge of t h i s m a t e r i a l w i l l b e e x p e c t e d d u r i n g t h e L A S T c o u r s e , e s p e c i a l l y t h e s e s s i o n i n e x p e r i m e n t a l design.
Please complete a self declaration certificate from the above website, print it and bring it to the registration. It will account for 6 % on module 0 (paper 0) in the exam.
You may also like to review the surgical and procedures tutorials on line at http://www.procedureswithcare.org.uk
We will give you two books and course revision material at registration. These will contain the information you need to revise for the exam.
The assessment has 2 parts:
This session covers handling and breeding which is taken at your home institute (a form for completion of this part should be submitted to sec@last-Ireland.org. Your trainer will have the form)

COURSE PREPARATION
The written exam consists of 4 papers of 15 multiple-choice questions
The LAST course is accepted by the Irish regulatory authority, the Irish Medicines Board, as fulfilling the training requirements required by the EU Directive 2010-63 EU to carry out scientific procedures on live animals. A LAST course completion certificate will be awarded if the modules of the course are satisfactorily completed (including the animal handling component) and a mark of ≥ 70% achieved in Paper 0 and an overall average mark of 70% achieved. As Paper 1 (UK Module 1) covers UK legislation it is not necessary to complete this paper to be awarded the LAST certificate.
The LAST course is also accredited by the UK Universities Training Group - UTG. If the course is completed fully, and exams passed, this will entitle you to a UTG certificate (in addition to the LAST certificate) which will enable you to apply for a personal license to work in the UK system without further training. (The UTG accreditation covers rodents (mice and rats) only).
The UTG require a mark of ≥ 70% in EACH of papers 1-3. If you choose to omit paper 1 (UK module 1) of the assessment you will not receive the UTG certificate.
Purpose of course is to achieve competence
Î To understand the legal, ethical and moral constraints around using animals in biomedical research in the context of reduction refinement and replacement (the 3Rs)
Î To know the competencies necessary to achieve the above
Î To understand the responsibilities of
Æ The principle investigator (user)
Æ The competent authority
Æ The establishment
Æ The animal care, welfare officers and veterinarian
Î To understand the impact of good experimental design on animal welfare and the 3Rs
Î To achieve a competency, under supervision, to handle and sex the chosen species

COURSE PREPARATION