The aim of the laboratory animal facility at CSCR is to ensure humane and ethical treatment of animals while facilitating legitimate scientific research involving experiments on animals.
Objective
The goal of the CSCR-Laboratory Animal Facility is to promote the humane care and use of laboratory animals by providing information that will enhance animal well-being, the quality of research, and the advancement of scientific knowledge that is relevant to both humans and animals as per the sanction from the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC). The laboratory animal facility is registered with the ‘Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals’ (CPCSEA) for breeding and conducting an experiment on small laboratory animals vide registration no. Reg. 88/PO/RcBi-S/Rc-L/1999/CPCSEA. All activities and protocols of the CSCRLAF were carried out as per standard operating procedures (SOPs) approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Infrastructure
Quality animal management and human comfort and health protection require separation of animal facilities from personnel areas. For that reason, the CSCR Laboratory Animal Facility (CSCR-LAF) is located in the basement of the CSCR building in a total floor space area of 5000 Sq. Ft with six animal rooms. The facility has got double corridor system to facilitate unidirectional movement of personnel. The clean corridor is for the movement of the animal facility staff and animal users only. The dirty corridor is for the movement of unsterile bedding, cages, and trolleys. Animals are maintained within individually ventilated microisolator caging (IVC) system for breeding, holding and experimentation. The IVC-systems in which the animals are kept ensures that lab animals are breathing HEPA-filtered air (High Efficiency-Particulate Air) that defends them from most of the airborne micro-organisms. The cages are constructed and designed in a specific way to ensure a clean microparticle-free inner environment. It is also designed to allow maximum comfort for the animals and to provide a secure, chew proof environment. An external ventilation unit supplies the cages with fresh HEPA-filtered air which passes through the filtered cage lids. The ventilation system mostly consists of two tubes for inlet and outgoing air.
Temperature, Humidity, and Ventilation
Temperature and relative humidity of the animal rooms were maintained between 20 to 25°C and 30 to 70% respectively throughout the year. All the environmental factors were monitored round the clock through individual room sensors. Photoperiod of 12 hrs light and 12 hrs dark maintained with automatic timers. Light intensity (300 Lux) and noise level (< 85db) maintained as per CPCSEA regulations.
Veterinary care
Qualified veterinarians supervise all the animal health concerns, and provide all necessary veterinary care to ensure that healthy animals are available for research. Ad-libitum supply of UV treated autoclaved R.O water, and autoclavable vegetable diets were given to animals. The CSCR-LAF is equipped with the Small animal to live imaging system, Multiphoton microscope and Small animal irradiator with Co-60 as a source in addition to a couple of Isoflurane anesthesia machines and Leica zoom microscopes.
The Veterinary and technical staffs of the CSCR-LAF are also supporting and facilitating all animal facility users ( including PhD students and Project Assistants) on mouse and rat bio-methodologies, principles of three R’s, ethics, IAEC laws and guidelines on the regulation of scientific experiments on animals, hematological parameters, husbandry and care, animal identification techniques, sex differentiation, handling and restraint, and IACUC approved techniques for anesthesia and monitoring, drug administrations, blood collection, humane euthanasia etc.
