The Department of Comparative Medicine has important responsibilities in the areas of teaching and research, but its primary responsibility is its service role. The service objective is to provide comprehensive support for all research and teaching projects involving animals. The highest priority is to insure that all animals are healthy, and properly and humanely housed and cared for. St. Louis University has committed substantial resources to upgrading its program of animal care over the past several years and the items requested in this proposal will allow us to complete our efforts. The equipment for animal housing that is requested in this application will provide sufficient caging to meet the needs of investigators for the next several years. The surgical equipment and personnel will allow us to provide a centralized resource for the conduct of sterile survival surgical procedures. It will be multidisiplinary in nature and serve all departments. The clinical pathology equipment and paersnnel will allow us to greatly enhance our animal health and post-operative/intensive care programs. The pathology and microbiology equipment and personnel will allow us to provide more comprehensive post mortum diagnostic services as well as enhancing our antemortum diagnostic capabilities in microbiology and serology. All of the equipment and interim salary support for technicians will complement the professional and technical staff now employed in a manner designed to provide a program of exemplory animal care and use for the faculty of St. Louis University.
