Lab Animals Flashcards
What animals are covered under the AWA?
- Cats
- Dogs
- Hamsters
- Rabbits
- Non-human primates
- Guinea pigs
- Any other warm blooded animal not excluded
What animals are excluded from the AWA?
- Rodents bred for research
- Farm animals if used for food/fiber/ag experiments
- Cold-blooded animals
What are the contents of the AWA?
- Covers specifics of size and sanitation of enclosures, transport, excerise programs in dogs, physicological enrichment programs in nonhuman primates
- Enforced by USDA - annual unannounced inspections, no jurisdiciton over facilities using non AWA animals
What are the responsibilites of a lab animal veterinarian?
- Facility management - preventative health programs, import/export quaratine programs, maintenance of biosecurity
- Training and research support - procedures/surgery, animal husbandry and experimental procedures
- Regulatory oversight
- Specific institutional duties - reviewing animal use protocols, participating in semiannual inspection of animal facilities
The guide defines animal biosecurity as…
all measures taken to prevent, identify, contain, and eradication kown or unkown infections…..
Engineering controls for the prevention of pathogen entry
- General facility design - clean to dirty flow
- Air lock at entry and exit of facility - air pressure higher inside air lock so you can only open one door at a time
- Restricted access - less people = less chance of an unwanted agent
- Pressurization of rooms in facility / air flow - room + = dirty stuff blown out, room - = isolation, infectious things in
Facility practices to prevent the entry of pathogens
- Room order - clean to dirty
- Sanitation and verification of effective sanitation
- PPE
- Individually ventilated cages and transfer stations
- Treated food and water
Lab animal quaratine
4 weeks - tested for different rodent pathogens before being alllowed into the main facility
Last, negative pressure
Rodent Health Monitoring Program
- Testing for rodent specific bacteria, viruses, endo and ectoparasites that can cause clinical disease or affect research
- Tested quarterly
What are the two surveillance methods in lab animal facilities?
Dirty bedding sentinel and environmental testing
Dirty bedding sentinels
- Sentinel mice exposed weekly to dirty bedding or research mice and are euthanized quarterly to be necropsies and tested for serology
- ImmunCOMPETENT mice
- Pros = direct test of animals, necropsy, daily surveillance of heath
- Cons = some agents not transmitted by soiled bedding, animal use
Environmental testing
- Mouse IVC rack with simple exhuast air duct for disease, those are swabbed and PCR is performed
- Pro: reduciton of animals used, more sensitive for certain pathogens
- Cons: DNA detection –> can detect dead DNA, pathogen may not really be active
Confirmation of + test result
- Use alternative/complementary assay method when available
- Additional confirmatory tests depend on agent
Eradication in lab animal facilities
Depopulation, disinfection (confirm effectiveness), repopulate
If a mouse line is valuable, what are alternative methods of eradicating a disease to try and avoid depoluations?
- Test and cull positives
- Treat infection (might interfere)
- Rederivation of lines - cross foster (newborn onto clean mom), embryo transfer, cesarean
