The long term objective of this application is to support a sound program of laboratory animal management. This application addresses deficiencies in the physical plant of the Central Vivarium and the need to modernize this facility used to support animal research at Duke University. The Central Vivarium is the largest and most heavily used facility in the biomedical research program that has approximately $49.0 million in animal related research.
The specific aims of this project are: 1) to enlarge and renovate the rodent barrier facility in the Central Vivarium to accommodate the growing use of specific pathogen free transgenic mice; 2) to equip the barrier with an autoclave, ventilated micro-isolation caging, an automatic watering system, a reverse osmosis water purification system, mobile HEPA filtered changing hoods, bulk trucks, and carts which are needed to provide the highest quality of animal care; 3) to install an environmental monitoring system to continuously monitor temperature, humidity, and airflow throughout all animal rooms in the facility, and; 4) to replace the one air handling unit which serves the enlarge rodent facility and conventional animal rooms used to house rodents and rabbits. The Division of Laboratory Animal Resources has been successful in maintaining barrier facilities and establishing specific pathogen free rodent colonies in the medical center animal facilities at Duke University. Completion of this project will address the need for additional barrier space to support the expansion of the existing research programs and the recruitment of new faculty.
