Improving Animal Resources at N.C. State University

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This improvement request involves animal facility equipment purchase for the North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), specifically, individually ventilated cage systems for mice, and support equipment, for use in the Research Building Vivarium. The Research Building was designed to meet critical space needs within the CVM for research laboratories, faculty and staff office and meeting room space, and rodent housing. The Research Building, which opened in 2005, is a 102,000 gsf, four-story building, with an 11,000 gsf vivarium on the ground floor. Specific aims of this facility improvement request include to: satisfy current and anticipated demands for rodent housing space;take advantage of current individually ventilated caging systems to help ensure an optimum microenvironment for rodents and minimum exposure of personnel to animal allergens;optimize labor efficiency thus minimizing costs to investigators;provide rodent housing space in a modern, state-of-the-art facility that optimizes environmental control and security, and provides extensive monitoring and back-up systems, to help ensure animal welfare and the quality and continuity of the research. The new vivarium was designed to accommodate individually ventilated caging Systems, utilizing building- supplied HEPA-filtered air supply and exhaust. We believe these systems provide an animal environment that is superior to that routinely encountered in static microisolators, while minimizing both cross contamination among cages and exposure of personnel to animal allergens.