The current laboratory animal facility opened in 2009. This facility serves the biological sciences and other members of the university research community.

The facility is located in the new Psychology building. It is approximately 13,000 square feet plus support space. The state of the art facility includes transgenic suites, 2 surgical rooms and adjacent treatment and prep areas, conventional animal rooms, a separate wing housing wild caught species, and 2500 square feet of aquatics facilities. The aquatics area consists of 3 test rooms, 2 laboratories and 2 large culture rooms. The cage wash area contains a rack and cage washer, tunnel washer, as well as a pass through autoclave. The staff includes 6 full time employees plus student labor.

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Daily Care -

• When facility personnel will be held responsible for feeding and watering animals, if animals are moved to a new room, the facility director or the director's representative must be notified by email. In addition, it would be wise to leave a conspicuous written note at both the original and new locations with any special instructions.

Availability of Space -

• Space is available to all research projects with IACUC approval within the College of Arts and Science and the University upon request to the Director of Laboratory Animal Resources.

• Space for housing projects is determined by the nature of the project, specialized housing or room requirements, the funding for the project, and the needs of the investigator. Every effort is made to accommodate research projects for vertebrate animal studies and to provide space for special non-vertebrate projects that would benefit from the systems and housing found in the Lab Animal Facility (IACUC approval is not required for non-vertebrate studies) .

• In the event that two projects of equal merit need space in the facility, projects involving vertebrates will be given priority.

• Projects of substantial size, regardless of funding status, may need to be performed in phases depending on cage requirements, room requirements and current projects housed in the facility.

Requesting Animal Models -

• Animal orders requested from commercial vendors must be submitted on an animal order form, which must include animal information, a protocol number, purchase order number, and requested delivery date.

• Animal requests to or from other institutions must have the appropriate approvals from both institutions, this may include, but may not be limited to; material transfer authorizations, IACUC approval, and acceptable health status.

• Investigators who request animals from other institutions are responsible for all costs involved in shipping, testing and animal care during a mandatory quarantine period. Animals will not be released from quarantine until testing is complete and health status is approved for entry into the facility.

• Wild caught animals will be treated for parasites and undergo health monitoring before they may enter the wild and aquatics wing of the animal facility.

• Please notify the animal facility director whenever wild animals are acquired for research with the intention of using the animal housing facilities either on campus or at the Ecology Research Center.

Quarantine -

• Any animals that will eventually be brought into the Animal Facility in the basement of the Psychology Building need to be cleared by the director of the facility before doing so. This may involve a period of quarantine at the Ecology Research Center.
Contact Linda Zehler (9-5435) with the details of your request for instructions on how to proceed.

• Animals must be allowed to acclimate for a minimum of 48 hours before undergoing any experimental procedures.

• Animals will not be released from quarantine until all health testing is complete and health status is approved for entry into the facility. Please plan accordingly.

• Quarantine periods are typically one week for animals from approved commercial sources, and no less than 1 month for animals from other institutions. Wild caught animals will be held no less than 6 weeks in quarantine.

• All Laboratory Animal Resources equipment is available to all investigators on a first come first serve basis and will be returned to general inventory at the end of a project.

• Experimental equipment considered for purchase or custom built for use in the research animal facilities, must be approved by the Director of Laboratory Animal Resources. The university must comply with all regulations applicable to animal care and housing.

• All equipment must be sanitized before entering the facility. Make arrangements with the Director before bringing equipment into the facility.

• Equipment belonging to investigators must be removed from the facility at the end of each project.