Health Monitoring
   
 
Health monitoring allows us to periodically check the health status of
the animals at Yale. This information assures that the research done at this
institution is not compromised by inadvertent infections of the research animals. It helps
us to detect the introduction of a pathogenic organism in a timely fashion so that
effective countermeasures can be put into effect.
Based on this health monitoring, health reports for each rodent room are
written. These reports are posted outside of each animal room and are sent to other
institutions prior to exporting animals from Yale.
- Source
- in most cases are obtained from commercial source, SW from Taconic Farms or, if
unavailable, ND4 from Harlan.
at the discretion of the investigator and the QA veterinarian, selected colonies supply
colony-born mice to be used as sentinels
- Age
- 4 weeks of age when introduced from commercial sources or when transferred from
investigator to YARC to be set up as sentinels
- Number
- two sentinels per rack (or per side of ventilated rack)
- Housing
- sentinels are housed two per cage on the bottom shelf of each rack or side of a
ventilated rack
sentinels are housed in the same type of caging as other animals on the rack (i.e. open
cages vs. microisolators)
Exception: rodent Quarantine facility:
- room sentinels are housed in open cages
- contact sentinels are housed in the same cages as the quarantined animals
- Servicing
- sentinels are changed weekly (or every two weeks in ventilated racks) into a cage
containing dirty bedding from two rows of soiled cages
cages are sampled systematically so that every cage is sampled over a 4-6 week period
on any given rack, the sentinel cage is changed after investigators' mice
- Mice
- sentinels are housed in mouse rooms at all times
three months after introduction, all sentinels are bled for viral serology by
retro-orbital puncture and samples submitted to the virology lab
at the same time, 6 native (investigator-owned) mice per rack are tested for Syphacia sp.
(pinworms) by adhesive tape to the peri-anal area; in rooms with three or less racks, a
minimum of 20 samples are obtained; samples are submitted to the microbiology lab
six months after introduction, all sentinels are submitted for necropsy examination (see testing procedures)
- Rats, Hamsters
- sentinels are housed for alternate three month periods (i.e. three months on-three
months off)
at the end of each three month period, sentinels are submitted for necropsy examination
serum samples obtained by retro-orbital puncture are tested for antibodies to mouse
hepatitis virus (MHV) and mouse parvovirus (MPV)
animals submitted for necropsy examination are processed as follows:
SPF
- gross examination of tissue; if suspicious lesions detected, tissues are processed for
histology
- examination of pelage for ectoparasites
- bacterial culture of nasopharynx and cecum (list of
agents)
- examination of cecal contents for internal parasites
- serology (list of agents)
Conventional
- gross examination of tissue; if suspicious lesions detected, tissues are processed for
histology
- examination of pelage for ectoparasites
- examination of cecal contents for internal parasites
- serology (list of agents)
- SPF
- specified pathogen free; SPF colonies are housed in a full-service microisolator (static
filter-top) or individually ventilated cages (i.e. autoclaved cage, food and bedding;
serviced in a clean-air hood/change-station) and/or in the YCCC or IMU barriers
- Conventional
- conventional colonies are housed in microisolator (static filter-top) or individually
ventilated cages, without autoclaved food, bedding etc.
-
 
|
