Housing, management and occupatuinal health Flashcards
Housing - what is a barrier?
A barrier is a room or multiple rooms where you enter through rooms in which you must perform procedures to ensure a high biosecurity.
A personal lock: hand wash/showering and gowning
The air pressure inside the barrier is either hypo- or hyper - keep things out or in!
What parameters are important to keep track on when housing rodents in barriers?
Humidity - low risk ring tail, high risk of bacterial growth
Temperature: legislation 20-24 degrees Celsius
Light: brightness, dark/light hours, ultraviolet?
Sound level: ultrasound (stress), high decibels
Health reports - testingplan
Housing -
- Types of cages
- enrichment
Open cage (low health status: MPF)
IVC (medium health status: OF/SPF)
Isolators (High healt status: GF/DF)
Enrichment: must: wood stick, nesting material and hiding, food
- supplementary: tunnel, swings, snacks
Food and water must be supplied
The density of animals must match cage size
Change beeding regulary
Group house: solitary animals alone or aggressive
Heath status - levels
MPF - murine pathogen free - multiple approved agents
SPF - specific pathogen free - free of specific agents
DF - defined flors - You know exactly what agents is in the mice
GF - Germ Free - cleanest possible
Consequences for the animal if not held under optimal conditions (housing)?
Humidity:
- high: bacterial growth
- low: ring tail
Light:
- Too bright: stress, eye damage
- Wrong amount of light/dark: alterations in breeding
Noise:
- high level: stress
Handling- gentle
In general the animal held under sub-optimal conditions might be stressed, which could affect the results of the research!
The orginazation of the animal facility - barrier, health status and quarantine, surgery area ect.
The animal facility is divided into different barriers with different health status.
You cannot move freely around the facility, you must be aware of the quarantine periods when moving between areas with different health status.
Health status is regularly monitored throw testing (it is possible to test for multiple agents within feces).
The scientific procedure must be conducted separated from the animal rooms.
How and why do you need to acclimatize the animals before using them in research?
Acclimatization period should be 1-2 weeks from arrival - the physiological parameters (fx stress hormones) needs to get back to normal.
The period can be used for training an habituation of the animal to accept being handled and restrained - fx accept being held while a blood sample is collected.
Individual marking of the animals - type, advantages and disadvantages
Ear punch:
++ Fast, easy to read, can be used for genotyping, permanent, can be done without sedation
- - Might be painfull, hard to do in young individuals
Tail/ear tattos:
++ permanent, easy to read in albino mice
- - can be hard to read in pigmented mice, the rodent must be fixated or sedated while marked, no genotyping possible
Microchip:
+ + easy to apply in the animal
- - very large in pups, risk of falling out, can only identify animals when having a scanner, no genotyping
Transportation of rodents what do you need to ensure?
The transport must not harm or injure the animal
The animals are healthy and are able to be transported
The animals is not heavily pregnant
Transportation time must be as short as possible
The size of the transportation box must fit the size/number of animals
Ensure supplement of food and water
Potential hazards working with laboratory animals
- Allergens and the development of allergies
- Physical hazards: bite, kick, repetitive movements, needle injuries
- Zoonoses/diseases: biosecurity is the answer
- Prevention: high biosecurity and the awareness of the risks!
