Columbia University's Health Science Division (CUHS) currently receives approximately 35 million dollars annually in direct costs for government-sponsored projects that use animals. A plan for revitalizing the CUHS animal resource facilities and reorganizing the Institute of Comparative Medicine began in 1985. CUHS expended 1.8 million dollars to correct USDA, AAALAC and NIH cited deficiencies and has committed an additional 10.5 million dollars for a Master Plan. This Master Plan reflects a comprehensive renovation of all resources over a 3-year period. The commitment of the University reflects more than improving the physical plant of the animal facilities. The new Director of the Institute has been given monies by the University to develop an excellent program in laboratory animal medicine that will provide comprehensive veterinary medical services for the research conducted by faculty and students. This grant proposal is a request to assist the University in completing the goals of the Director in providing excellence in laboratory animal medicine at the University. The objectives of the project are: (1) To become AAALAC accredited; and, (2) To provide comprehensive diagnostic, clinical and experimental surgical services. To meet these objectives the aims are: (1) To establish new necropsy and histology laboratories: (2) To provide skilled technical staff for the experimental surgery section, the critical care unit, and the diagnostic laboratories; and, (3) To provide the necropsy, histology, critical care, and experimental surgery units with state-of-the-art equipment. This proposal requests partial support for these aims.
