Animal Facility

The Facility

Researchers requiring access into this facility will be required to complete an induction.

Mouse Breeding Rooms

This facility contains three dedicated animal breeding rooms. To maintain the health status of the facility, animals coming into ARL breeding rooms requires strict validation by the Facility Managers:

  • SPF Rooms: can only house lines that have undergone re-derivation from MARP RBF
  • SPF Step Down: can only house lines via approved clean sources
  • Step Down: can only house lines via approved sources or accepted health reports from another facility

These breeding rooms require staff to air shower into the facility and is only accessible to MARP staff.

Each room holds the OptiMICE EVC caging system and are equipped with bio-class II units.

opti

Procedure Rooms

Eight mouse procedure rooms are within ARL. Each procedure room contains a cage change station and a Class II BSC along with a small dedicated animal holding room.

Each animal holding room within procedures can hold up to 200 OptiMice cages.  Animals are allocated to rooms based on researcher preference or where space is available.

Surgical Suite

ARL surgical suite contains two dedicated isoflurane anaesthetic machines, heat pads, heat lamps, scales and a wide bench space.

QC2

Located next to the ARL (and managed by ARL) is a QC2/microbiological containment facility for infectious work. Researchers requiring access to use equipment in procedures, suites or QC2 (such as hoods, bench space, room bookings anaesthetic machines etc) must place a request through iLab.

Food and bedding

Mice agisted in the ARL facility are generally fed irradiated mice and rats pellets.  These pellets are high in protein with essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. The feed is vacuum sealed then Gamma irradiated to ensure bacterial contamination is eradicated.  Clients are able to request for their mice to receive a special diet (for example, low fat or high fat diet).  Mice have constant access to water via a autoclaved water bottle.

The bedding used for the mice in this facility is dust free sawdust.  This sawdust is processed from pine wood shaving which makes it more finer than other bedding types.  The same bedding is also used when animals are transported to another MARP facility or researcher lab.

If you would like your animals to be fed a different diet, please submit a Rodent Passport on iLab.