Laboratory Animal Science Center (BUMC)

Per Diem Rates

To recover a portion of the money spent on animal care, per diem rates for the various species are charged by the LASC. The per diem charge covers boarding and feeding of an animal, cage and room cleaning and sanitation, and veterinary services for spontaneous illnesses. The charge does not cover veterinary, diagnostic laboratory, and pathology services for medical problems resulting from experimental procedures, special diet, or special husbandry requests; those services are billable to the investigator. Per diem rates are established by the University and published on an annual basis, and are available from the LASC (617) 438-4086.

Per Diem Rates Table

Effective: July 1st, 2009
Animal Species¹

Per Diem Rate²

Cat, each

$11.95

Chicken,  per cage

$4.43

Chinchilla, per cage

$5.12

Ferret, per cage

$4.43

Guinea pig, per cage

$4.43

Mouse, per small cage³

$0.91

Mouse, sterile, per small cage³

$1.06

Mouse, BL2, per small cage

$1.06

Monkey, each

$17.05

Rat, per cage³

$2.04

Rat, sterile, per cage

$4.08

Rat, BL2, per cage

$4.08

Rat, singly-housed

$1.10

Rabbit, each

$5.33

Swine, each

$44.96

Authorization for Animal Housing and Special Services Costs

  1. Download the Authorization for Animal Housing and Special Services Costs form (PDF)
  2. Contact LASC for rates regarding any species not listed above.
  3. Per diem (daily) rate covers standard feed, standard bedding, cage changing and sanitization at the standard interval for the species, routine health monitoring, and veterinary care for naturally-occurring diseases. Other services may be provided on a fee for service basis. One-time set-up, conditioning, or quarantine charges may also apply for animal purchases.
  4. Click on Rodent Cage Capacity Policy to find the maximum number of mice and rats that can be housed in each cage.
  5. Rate applies only for singly housed rats that meet special scientific criteria. Contact LASC for details.

Instructions for Authorization for Animal Housing and Special Services Costs For

BU and BMC Investigators must continue to use both the LASC animal order form and the BU or BMC purchase requisition when placing animal orders.

All Investigators who house animals at the LASC should immediately submit a signed Authorization for Animal Housing and Special Services Costs Form to the LASC. We must receive a completed form at the same time of your first animal purchase.

Authorization forms may be forwarded to the LASC in W-707 by inter-office mail (Attention: Maureen Cauley) or faxed to the LASC at (617) 638-4055. When completing this form, please remember that the Principal Investigator and the protocol number MUST match. The User of the animals can be different and the owner of the grant funds used to pay housing costs can be different but the Principal Investigator and the protocol number MUST match.

You may use one form or multiple Authorization Forms to indicate the funding (BMC activity number of BU source number) for your animals. One form is sufficient if all your animals are to be supported by the same source or set of sources. If you want to use different sources for different groups of animals, two or more forms must be submitted. If different sources are used to support subsets of animals within the same animal species, the animals' cage cards must be marked by the Investigator to indicate which source is to be charged for each cage. LASC will then establish separate census sheets for each funding source to be used. If you wish to explore this option, please either contact a member of the Animal Care management staff for further details or use our general contact form.

This new authorization form offers Investigators more flexibility so that grant funds are not encumbered, source changes are easier to process, and payments can be made by more expeditiously. Please contact LASC Business Office at (617) 638-4087 if you have any questions concerning this process.