Montana State University will complete the construction of a new Central Laboratory Animal Facility during the month of April 1984. The facility is being constructed with funds appropriated by the 1981 Montana Legislature in the amount of $2,260.000. The goal of this proposal is to provide Montana State University with a quality laboratory animal facility for the breeding, rearing and holding of healthy experimental animals to be used in biomedical research and teaching. Funds are requested in this proposal to (1) support the development of the new laboratory animal facility as a central institutional resource, (2) acquire equipment for the new facility, (3) support the hiring of new personnel required to operate the new facility and to develop associated programs, (4) develop laboratory animal programs to support teaching, research, and other services and (5) modify an existing laboratory animal room used for behavioral research. The achievement of the above will provide Montana State University with laboratory animal facilities to support a rapidly expanding program in biomedical research and health science education and, for the first time in the history of the institution, it will centralize laboratory animal care and research in a single building and under the supervision of a veterinarian professionally qualified in the specialty of laboratory animal medicine.
