Center for Laboratory Animal Care
Policy
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Center for Laboratory Animal Care |
One cage per rack whether open holding, micro isolator holding or ventilated racks is kept under the same conditions as all the other cages on that rack. E.g. in Ventilated Racks, the sentinel cage is also placed on the rack, Static micro isolator racks are also kept in static micro isolators.
Three mice per cage, individually marked to make sure, that always the oldest animal is used for testing
Sentinel cages are changed at the same interval as the other cages in the room
In cases of ventilated racks, a scoop of bedding from all cages of the rack is collected in a container kept inside the cage changing hood. This pool of bedding will then be added to the sentinel cage kept on that rack.
One mouse is replaced every 3 month from each sentinel cage, A new mouse is added to the team and one is removed to harvested for maximum amount of serum. The examined mouse is immediately replaced with a new sentinel mouse.
CD-1 mice are used as sentinels.
Individual mouse sera are prepared in aliquots of 25μl. For initial screening sera of up to four mice are pooled from each room and submitted for serology. If a result comes back as questionable or positive individual samples are submitted for retesting.
All sentinel animals are tested in house for internal and external parasites. Necropsies are conducted selectively from both sentinel and experimental animals at least one animal per room every 3 months. At that time in house testing for Helicobacter by PCR is also conducted. In addition every 3 months one additional animal per room is submitted life to a contract laboratory for a complete work up including bacteriology.
Web page compiled by Dr. Peter Autenried
Copyright © 2002 UConn Health Center. All rights reserved.
Revised: 11/15/2005