This proposal for facilities improvement will enable UMAB to undertake much needed renovations, maintenance, and replacement of malfunctioning equipment needed to maintain high quality animal care in support of research funded by PHS and from other agencies. iThe University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMAB) , is a separate campus under the University of Maryland System. The annual research funding involving animal research is in excess of $26 million. Approximately 250 Principal Investigators use over 60,000 animals per annum. Veterinary Resources at UMAB has begun to operate a centralized animal resources program which provides animal ordering, husbandry, management and health care for animal research in facilities at the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy. These facilities are fully accredited by AAALAC.
The aims of this proposal are to meet our long term goals of ensuring humane use and care of animals. To accomplish this objective, renovations and repairs are needed to correct deficiencies cited by the USDA and AAALAC; additional animal caging is needed to accommodate the increasing census being generated by additional investigators and expanding NIH grant support for research that requires animals and to replace worn out, rusted or damaged caging cited by AAALAC, USDA and IACUC. Of considerable importance, is our need to replace an obsolete cage washer which is operating inefficiently and is prohibitively expensive in annual maintenance costs. With NIH grant support we can rectify current inadequacies and begin to meet the needs of an increasing animal census.
