? This application for facilities improvement will enable the UMB to continue to develop the campus' overall animal care and use program by providing both fixed and moveable equipment in support of the Howard Hall sixth floor animal facilities renovation project. The renovation project will enhance the existing resources available to research faculty and provide additional animal research support space needed as a result of the expansion of research space at UMB. Specifically, this request will provide additional high density caging systems and related cage changing hoods to meet increasing demand for mouse housing and provide critical infrastructure equipment for the cage washing operation and fixed equipment supporting the Clinical and Diagnostic Veterinary Pathology program component. There are approximately 350 PHS- and non-PHS-funded Principal Investigators (PIs) utilizing laboratory animals. UMB is a separate campus under the University System of Maryland and receives in excess of $100 million in laboratory animal based research projects. Of the $100 million, PHS funds approximately $95 million with the balance of approximately $5 million derived from non-PHS sources. Veterinary Resources at UMB is continuing to operate, develop, and refine centralized animal resources program. This program provides for animal ordering, husbandry, management, and veterinary care for all animal research activities conducted in the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Veteran's Administration. These facilities are all fully AAALAC accredited.
The aims of this application are to meet long-term goals of ensuring the humane care and use of laboratory animals, provide state of the art caging systems and infrastructure critical equipment for funded and pending PHS and non-PHS projects that will occupy the renovated Howard Hall sixth floor facility, comply with both PHS and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards of animal care, to improve the overall efficiency of the operation, and to provide a healthy and safe environment for UMB staff. To accomplish these goals, National Institutes of Health (NIH) support is requested to provide additional high density mouse caging systems and cage changing and animal manipulation safety cabinets, to provide the critical and essential wash room support equipment for the Howard Hall sixth floor renovations project and to provide essential equipment to support the veterinary pathology program. ? ?
