Lab Animal Flashcards
What are the clinical duties of a lab animal vet?
- treat spontaneous and experimentally-induced diseases in many different species
- facility management (preventative health, quarantine, import/export, biosecurity)
- training and research support (procedures/surgery, animal husbandry, experimental procedures)
- regulatory oversight (ensure adherence to federal regulations)
- specific institutional duties (animal use protocols, inspect animal facilities)
It is mandated by law that every institution that uses animals must have a(n) _________. This entails inspection of every place an animal is housed/brought every 6 months, reviewing animal use protocols, and ensuring compliance of all federal regulations.
IACUC (institutional animal care and use committee)
Which of the following animals is NOT covered by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)? choose all that apply
a. dog
b. cat
c. rodents bred for research
d. hamsters and guinea pigs
e. rabbits
f. farm animals
g. non-human primates
h. goldfish
c. rodents bred for research
f. farm animals
h. goldfish (and any other cold-blooded animal)
Who enforces the AWA?
the USDA
they do annual unannounced inspections
What does the AWA cover?
specific size and sanitation of enclosures, transport, exercise programs, and psychological enrichment programs
What animals does the Public Health Service Policy cover?
ALL animals used in PHS-funded research (NIH, CDC, FDA, NSF)
who enforces the Public Health Service Policy?
NIH’s office of labratory animal welfare (OLAW)
T/F: OLAW has official oversight of the public health service policy
false – no oversight, they do self-policing
Who enforces Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)?
FDA
In what scenario would you need to follow by Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)?
if you have intent to submit an application to FDA for drug or medical devices
T/F: Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory and Animal Care (AAALAC) is a voluntary accreditation.
true
How often do site visits occur under the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory and Animal Care (AAALAC)?
every 3 years
what does Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory and Animal Care (AAALAC) accreditation ensure?
meeting standards required by law
going extra step to achieve excellence in animal care and use
___________ is all measures taken to prevent, identify, contain, and eradicate known or unknown infections that may cause clinical disease or alter physiologic and behavioral responses or otherwise make the animals unsuitable for research
biosecurity
What are 2 reasons we want to keep pathogens out of a rodent facility?
- sick animals do not make good research models
- welfare issues
Your rodent lab is filled with immunocompromised animals being used for research. Which pressurization would be most appropriate – negative or positive to the hallway?
positive because we want the air to rush OUT instead of IN. rushing in would increase the risk of potential pathogens being introduced to these immunocompromised animals.
Your rodent lab is filled with animals that are sick. Which pressurization would be most appropriate – negative or positive to the hallway?
negative to the hallway. This way, pathogens will be kept IN the room as opposed to being pushed out and potentially spreading them to other areas/labs/animals.
Which of the following rooms should you visit first? Which would you visit last?
a. mouse colony with primarily neonates
b. mouse colony infected with a virus
c. rat colony used for behavior studies
d. mouse colony used for breeding
first – a. mouse colony with primarily neonates
last – b. mouse colony infected with a virus
ideally, you’d want to visit the breeding mouse colony second (as to not switch species), and then the rat colony used for behavior studies prior to entering the sick mice room.
What are IVCs?
individually ventilated cages
How can you prevent disease by use of food and water in laboratory animals?
you can treat food and water
you can irradiate or autoclave food
you can hyper-chlorinate or acidify water
describe the quarantine process for lab animals
before animals are allowed to enter from another institution, health reports and facility practices are reviewed.
once animals are approved to be shipped, they are placed into quarantine.
for 4 weeks in quarantine, they are tested for different rodent pathogens before being allowed into the main facility
what air pressurization should a quarantine room have relative to the hallway?
negative
health monitoring in lab animals provides objective results for biosecurity efforts designed to prevent rodent populations from being exposed to pathogens.
We typically test for rodent-specific bacteria, viruses, endo- and ectoparasites. How often do we test?
quarterly
This surveillance method is described as:
- sentinel mice (immunocompetent) are exposed to weekly to dirty bedding of the research mice
- quarterly mice are euthanized, necropsied, and tested for disease by serology
dirty bedding sentinel
This surveillance method is described as:
- swabbing exhaust and air ducts from mouse IVC rack for disease (PCR-based)
environmental testing
Dirty bedding sentinel surveillance method is good because it allows us to directly test animals, necropsy animals, and take daily surveys of health.
What are the biggest cons of the dirty bedding sentinel surveillance method?
- some agents are not transmitted by soiled bedding
- animal use required
the environmental testing surveillance program uses DNA detection, which can detect dead DNA, so we cannot know if the pathogens we are detecting are alive or not. That is a con of this program.
what are the pros of this surveillance program?
- reduce animal usage
- more sensitive for certain pathogens
Is there a Hybrid surveillance program (combine dirty bedding and environmental testing) and if there is, how does it work?
yes
1st and 3rd quarter – do environmental air duct sampling and direct fecal collection from experiment animals
2nd and 4th quarter – dirty bedding sentinels
You conduct a surveillance program and identify a rodent pathogen during the quarterly health monitoring – What is the very next step?
re-test to confirm
use an alternative assay method (ex. if you used serology, confirm with PCR)
how do we contain a pathogen if we have found one within the rodent lab?
- stop movement of animals and people, supplies, etc. LIMIT ACCESS
- change facility practices (increase sanitation)
- more frequent testing of animals
- stop breeding
what are the steps to ‘eradicate’ a pathogen from a lab?
- depopulate
- disinfect (and confirm it was effective)
- repopulate with new, clean animals
other option: test and cull (long process) or treat the infection (consider if this will disqualify them from the research)
What are the ‘rederivation’ options for eradicating disease from your lab?
- rederivation of lines
- cross foster rederivation (placing pups with clean mom)
- embryo transfer rederivation (place embryos in clean mom)
- c-section rederivation (place c-section pups with clean mom)
When do you consider an outbreak to be “over” within a lab?
2 consecutive negative screens of 100% of cages.
What are ways to PREVENT pathogens from entering a lab? (10 things)
- facility design (clean vs dirty areas)
- air lock at entry and exit
- restricted access
- pressurization of rooms in facility
- adhering to “room order” (visit clean first, then dirty)
- sanitation and verification
- PPE
- IVCs
- husbandry practices – treated or altered food, water
- quarantine
