Animal Husbandry Information
Animal Water Quality
The NIH Guide (ILAR 1996) recommends that laboratory animals should have access to potable, uncontaminated drinking water. Water quality testing of the Rochester water supply includes periodic monitoring for pH, hardness, and microbial or chemical contamination. The most recent report from the Monroe County Water Authority indicates that Rochester drinking water meets all New York State and USEPA drinking water standards. Please refer to the website link above for more details about detected contaminants and a water quality summary.
Supplemental treatment (e.g., autoclaving, acidification, hyperchlorination) of water provided to the University's laboratory animals is available by special request. All water provided to animals housed in the KMRB and CVRI facilities is treated by reverse osmosis.
Rodent Diet
The standard laboratory rodent diet fed to our mice and rats and chemical compositions are:
Animal Room Temperatures & Humidity Ranges
All of the University of Rochester's animal holding rooms are maintained within temperature and humidity ranges described in the ILAR Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (1996) with very rare exceptions. The building HVAC systems occasionally fail to tightly control room humidity in the face of outdoor seasonal extremes (Winter levels < 30%, Summer levels >70%). Please note that the animal room humidity levels rarely fall outside of range (less than 10 days in the Winter and Summer) and that the change in humidity is gradual over time. Be aware that we cannot control these outliers.
Animal Room Temperature Ranges
- Mouse, rat, hamster, gerbil, guinea pig: 64-79F
- Rabbit: 61-72F
- Cat, dog, non-human primate: 64-84F
- Farm animals and poultry: 61-81F
Animal Room Relative Humidity Range: 30-70%
Recommendations for Husbandry of Severely Immunocompromised Mice
The Animal Resource recommends the following special diet and water for severely immunocompromised mice such as NOG, SCID, RAG-2, Athymic Nude, and Beige mice. Immunodeficient mice also require strict attention to MicroIsolator Technology.
The following practices are available to investigators by submission of a special request to the Animal Resource Office:
- Autoclaved acid water (pH 2.5-3.0) in sterile water bottles changed once weekly. This prevents a biofilm or overgrowth of Pseudomonas sp. (and other bacteria) in the water bottle.
- Feed irradiated TEST DIET MODIFIED ISOPRO (0.124% Sulfadiazine/0.025% Trimethoprim—5TVP mouse chow. The vivarium has this diet available on inventory.
Please be sure to incorporate this information into your UCAR protocol as a Vivarium recommended husbandry practice for severely immunocompromised mice.
Additional Information
The Animal Resource
is fully accredited by
