) The Laboratory Animal Facility (LAF) is responsible for the procurement, husbandry, breeding and monitoring of all vertebrate animals used in the various research Programs of the FCCC. The Facility is currently used by 44 peer-review funded investigators from 13 different research programs representing all three Divisions of the Center. 99.65 percent of the research projects utilizing this Facility are supported by peer-review funding. The staff of the Facility provide animal related technical expertise to, and collaborate with, the various research laboratories using the Facility. The Facility also maintains six genetically defined mouse strains which are unique to this institution. The Facilities are fully accredited by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, International (AAALAC) and are designated as registered research Facilities by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The centralized LAF consists of two animal facilities located on the FCCC campus. The Research Animal Facility contains 13,360 square feet of animal space distributed over three floors. Extensive renovations and operational improvements have occurred in this Facility since the last site visit. The second floor of this building and the second floor of the adjoining barrier building have been reconstructed to contain the new SPF Research Barrier, a 5,800 sq. ft. facility containing a total of 23 animal rooms. All immunodeficient, transgenic and most other lines of mice involved in research protocols are housed, using microisolator technology, in this barrier facility All animals entering the Research Barrier come from either the SPF Breeding Barrier, and commercial sources, or are rederived, or embryo transfer, from animals in quarantine. The third floor of the Facility contains conventionally housed mice, rats and rabbits. This floor also contains the new amphibian room constructed to support the new research initiatives of FCCC investigators using Xenopus levies in their research. The basement of the Facility contains a suite of rooms for housing woodchucks and Peking ducks. These unique research animals are successfully maintained to support the extensive research involving the hepatitis virus. The first floor (2,600 square feet) of the adjoining SPF barrier building is used by the LAF for breeding specific pathogen free inbred mice required by 32 peer-review funded FCCC investigators. The NMR Animal Facility, consisting of a small (366 sq. ft.) animal holding area divided into three rooms and three cubicles, located on the ground floor of the NMR building. The Facility is used to house rats and mice utilized by research Programs in the NMR building and as a quarantine area for imported mice.
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