This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.Sanitation quality assurance monitoring at Yerkes currently relies on the use of RODAC (replicate organism direct agar contact) plates. RODAC requires 48 hours of incubation and significant laboratory support. In addition, it can only detect live bacteria or fungi. In the majority of cases, all equipment or enclosures have to be used immediately after sanitation. Most facilities have no space or extra equipment that allows the animal care personnel to wait for the RODAC plate results before reusing cages, enrichment devices or housing rooms. As a consequence, it increases the risk of using supplies visually clean, but inadequately sanitized. For these reasons, we are evaluating a monitoring method that gives us immediate results. This will enable immediate feedback to the cage washing team. Supplies or enclosures with inadequate sanitation could then be rewashed immediately. The system selected uses bioluminescence to detect adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from organic matter. RODAC plate and ATP swabs were taken after sanitation in adjacent regions on the same surface. The plates were submitted to the Yerkes Pathology Laboratory and results were expressed in colony forming units (CFU). The swabs were immediately read in relative light units (RLU). Sixty nonhuman primate cages, 60 housing rooms and 20 enrichment devices were tested. We obtained between 70 and 76% correlation between the RODAC plates and ATP swabs for cages and enrichment devices. In the remaining cases, the RLU results indicated presence of organic matter as RODAC plates results reported clean equipment. Therefore, the ATP hygiene-monitoring system offers several advantages including accuracy, better detection of inadequately sanitized cages and supplies and immediate results.
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