The objectives of this proposal are to improve facilities and equipment in order to provide care of research animals, support for on-going research, and to comply with and maintain the standards of the federal Animal Welfare Law, the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, and Public Health Service policy. Requested renovations and equipment will complete our five year plan to bring all of our animal resources up to a high standard. Specifically, we propose to: (1) Improve sanitation at the Peavine Kennel Building by resurfacing deteriorated floors. (2) Provide safe and comfortable housing for pigs and other large animals by replacing damaged and deteriorated galvanized metal/chain link pens at the Peavine Kennel with stainless pens designed for pigs and other large animals. (3) Provide safe transport and comfortable temporary housing of pigs at the Woodruff Memorial building, Rollins Center and Crawford Long facility by the acquisition of portable stainless steel pens to replace sky kennel transport containers and galvanized chain link pens. (4) Replace old, deteriorated mouse microisolator cages with a ventilated microisolator cage system to facilitate research with mice free of infectious diseases and environmental pollutants that perturb the immune system and confound research results. (5) Install an environmental monitoring system in animal facilities lacking such to protect the health and stability of animals and the integrity of research programs. (6) Rebuild one steam autoclave to facilitate animal resource functions for immunocompromised animals and studies with infectious agents. (7) Improve sanitation and efficiency of operations by installing automatic water lines in animal rooms that do not have them. The proposed improvements directly affect the quality of animal housing, care, sanitation, and environmental control facilitating the multi-million dollar research programs dependent on animal studies.
