Chemicals in laboratory room air stimulate olfactory neurons of female Bombyx mori.
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Laboratory air contained odorants that elicited electrophysiological responses in female Bombyx mori antennae. Air entrainments on charcoal filters, extracted with CS(2) and subsequently with acetone, were analyzed by coupled gas chromatography (GC)-electroantennogram (EAG) as well as by GC-mass spectrometry. The CS(2) extract contained 12 EAG-active peaks from which benzaldehyde, octanal, limonene, 1,8-cineol, methyl benzoate, nonanal, decanal and geranyl acetone were identified. In the acetone extract we identified eight EAG-active peaks as phenol, nonanal, 2-ethylhexanoic acid, octanoic acid, benzoic acid, nonanoic acid, decanoic acid and dimethyl phthalate. The concentrations of benzoic acid and benzaldehyde present in laboratory air were determined. The origin of the substances and importance of such odorants in laboratory air for the interpretation of physiological experiments on the olfactory system is discussed. (+info)
Animal care best practices for regulatory testing.
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Best practices result from a partnership between law, science, and the people working with the animals on regulated studies. In an ideal setting, people working with animals observe and study animal behavior as influenced by different housing and handling paradigms. These observations are published to create a body of science, and laws are promulgated based on the science. The ideal world does not exist, but there are certain components of best practices common to all species. These components include study design, housing, social contact, diet/feed, enrichment devices, and human interaction. This paper outlines how the forces of law, science, and people work to create best practices for species in regulated studies, specifically mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, and nonhuman primates. (+info)
50 years of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR): 1953-2003.
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The history of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) begins, as does all of laboratory animal science, with the ancient philosophers, anatomists, and physiologists whose work presaged the use of animals in biomedical research and the institutions that arose due to this use. Modern laboratory animal science and medicine began in the late 1940s and early 1950s as five Chicago-area institutions hired veterinarians to manage their animal facilities. Each of these men became instrumental in the founding of the organizations that collectively make up the laboratory animal science and medicine organizations. Nathan Brewer, one of the "Chicago five," was particularly influential in the founding of ILAR. His boss at the University of Chicago, Dr. Paul Weiss, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), asked him to help establish a committee with the stated purpose of preparing recommendations to the NAS to develop an office to obtain information on sources of supply for research animals. This office became ILAR, and Brewer was chairman of its first report on the diseases of laboratory animals. He was also a founding diplomat and first president of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. This history recognizes the thoughtful and energetic contributions of scientists and veterinarians to ILAR. It provides a 50-year overview of the programs and reports of ILAR and highlights examples where these reports have been adopted by scientists and federal agencies and incorporated into national laws and policies governing the use of animals in research both in the United States and in other countries. (+info)
Preventing annoyance from odors in spaceflight: a method for evaluating the sensory impact of rodent housing.
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For the scientific community, the ability to fly mice under weightless conditions in space offers several advantages over the use of rats. These advantages include the option of testing a range of transgenic animals, the ability to increase the number of animals that can be flown, and reduced demands on shuttle resources (food, water, animal mass) and crew time (for water refill). Mice have been flown in animal enclosure module (AEM) hardware only once [Space Shuttle Transport System (STS)-90] and were dissected early in the mission, whereas rats have been flown in the AEM on >20 missions. This has been due, in part, to concerns that strong and annoying odors from mouse urine (vs. rat urine) will interfere with crew performance in the shuttle middeck. To screen and approve mice for flight, a method was developed to evaluate the odor containment performance of AEMs housing female C57BL/6J mice compared with AEMs housing Sprague-Dawley rats across a 21-day test period. Based on the results of this test, consensus was reached that mice could fly in the AEM hardware for up to 17 days (including prelaunch and contingency) and that the AEM hardware would likely contain odors beyond this duration. Human sensory and electronic nose analysis of the AEMs postflight demonstrated their success in containing odors from mice for the mission duration of STS-108 (13 days). Although this paper focuses specifically on odor evaluations for the space shuttle, the concern is applicable to any confined, closed-system environment for human habitation. (+info)
Laboratory animal science issues in the design and conduct of studies with endocrine-active compounds.
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The use of rodent models for research and testing on endocrine-active compounds necessitates an awareness of a number of laboratory animal science issues to standardize bioassay methods and facilitate reproducibility of results between laboratories. These issues are not unique to endocrine research but are particularly important in this field due to the complexities and interdependencies of the endocrine system, coupled with the inherently sensitive and variable nature of physiological endpoints. Standardization of animal models and the control of animal environments depend on the establishment of strong scientific partnerships between research investigators and laboratory animal scientists. Laboratory animal care and use programs are becoming increasingly complex and are constantly changing, fueled in part by technological advances, changes in regulations concerning animal care and use, and economic pressures. Since the early 1980s, many institutions have moved to centralization of animal facility operations concomitant with numerous changes in housing systems, barrier concepts, equipment, and engineering controls of the macro- and microenvironment. These and other changes can have an impact on animals and the conduct of endocrine experiments. Despite the potential impact of animal care and use procedures on research endpoints, many investigators are surprisingly naive to the animal facility conditions that can affect in vivo studies. Several key animal care and use issues that are important to consider in endocrine experiments with rodent models are described. (+info)
Rules of good practice in the care of laboratory animals used in biomedical research.
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In recent years, the use of laboratory animals has decreased as a result of the adoption of alternative methods such as in vitro experiments and simulation studies. Nonetheless, animal models continue to be necessary in many fields of biomedical research, giving rise to ethical issues regarding the treatment of these animals. In the present work, a general overview of the rules of good practise in caring for laboratory animals is provided, focussing on housing conditions and the proper means of handling animals, including the importance of the relationship or "bond" between the researcher and the animal. (+info)
Reduction of airborne allergenic urinary proteins from laboratory rats.
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Allergy and asthma caused by proteins of laboratory animals, particularly rats and mice, are the most important occupational health hazards for the scientists and technicians who work with such animals. The influence of different cage litters, cage design, and stock density on measured rat urinary aeroallergen (RUA) concentrations has been examined in a room housing male rats, to determine practical means to reduce allergen concentration in animal laboratories. Eight hour static air samples were taken at 2 1/min and the RUA concentrations measured by radioallergosorbent test (RAST) inhibition. High RUA concentrations occurred when the animals were housed on wood based, contact litter (geometric mean (GM) sawdust 7.79 micrograms/m3; woodchip 6.16 micrograms/m3). The use of noncontact absorbent pads was associated with a significant decrease in RUA concentrations (GM 2.47 micrograms/m3; p less than 0.0001). Rat urinary aeroallergen concentrations fell more than fourfold when the animals were housed on woodbased, contact litter in filter top cages rather than conventional open top cages (GM filter top 0.33 micrograms/m3; open top 1.43 micrograms/m3; p less than 0.0001). The number of rats (stock density) strongly influenced the RUA concentration and a linear relation was found between the log(e) allergen concentration and stock density under these study conditions. The measurement of airborne particle size on cleaning out days showed that all litter types generated similar sized particles: more than 80% of the RUA was carried on particles larger than 8 microns in diameter for all litter types. The findings suggest that the exposure of animal husbandry personnel to RUA may be substantially reduced by the avoidance of contact litter, the use of filter top cages (where suitable), and by keeping stock density to a minimum. (+info)
Report on the ILAR International Workshop on the Development of Science-based Guidelines for Laboratory Animal Care.
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The Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the National Academies hosted a meeting in November 2003 in Washington, DC, titled "International Workshop on the Development of Science-based Guidelines for Laboratory Animal Care." The purpose of the workshop was to bring together experts from around the world to assess the available scientific knowledge that can have an impact on the current and pending guidelines for laboratory animal care. Platform presentations focused on a variety of issues, from information exchange on mechanisms for the development of regulations across different countries and cultures, to data-based scientific studies on the effects of environmental enrichment on research outcomes. In the discussion sessions, participants were tasked with addressing the current scientific literature on the specific session topics; identifying gaps in the current knowledge in order to encourage future research endeavors; and assessing the effects of current and proposed regulations on facilities, research, and animal welfare. Participants had ample opportunities to share research outcomes and viewpoints in the multiple breakout sessions. Summaries of all breakout sessions were presented in the general session. On the final day of the workshop during the point/counterpoint session, a diverse group of speakers presented their cases for and against harmonization of standards. Although some of the speakers had serious reservations about harmonization, most of the panel members supported some form of harmonization. A positive outcome of the workshop was the opportunity for scientists and veterinarians from many countries to begin a dialogue with a goal of understanding the basis for the differences in regulatory approaches in laboratory animal care and the hope of continuing discussions on ways to work together toward some type of harmonization. (+info)