This application requests shared financial support for three projects at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Two of these projects are related in that they concern renovation and improvements to buildings at the institution's Research Farm; these include refurbishing of the facility housing the institutional rhesus monkey breeding colony provides long-term housing for dogs (Building 11). These improvements are necessary to correct the damages caused by over fifteen years of use which have created deficiencies which hinder compliance with the USDA Animal Welfare Act and DHHS policies. Additionally the HVAC units for this building, and for another multipurpose unit, Building 12, which serves as the dog processing/ long-term dog holding/ and swine rearing facility will be replaced with energy efficient heat pumps. Replacement of these units at this time will prevent possible future problems which would result from the sudden, unexpected failure of aging and inefficient equipment. The third project is designed to improve and upgrade capabilities of the animal holding facilities for the School of Medicine Basic Science complex through the installation of an autoclave of sufficient size to process large numbers of microisolator cages for the housing of transgenic and virus antibody free rodents. Recent institutionally funded improvements to this housing area have provided modern and efficient cage-washing capabilities and quarters designed for isolation housing of specific pathogen free and nude animals. However, the area lacks a central autoclave needed for its efficient and appropriate operation.
