Washington
State University
Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee
Rodent
Colony Health Monitoring Guidelines [VS-002]
Sentinel Programs
A. Purposes
1. To rapidly detect an infectious disease outbreak within existing colonies
2.
To evaluate the health status of animals from non-commercial vendors/suppliers
B. Guidelines
1. Recommended
surveillance: Surveillance with rodent sentinels is recommended
for all long-term rodent colonies with rats, mice, wild mice, hamsters,
guinea pigs and gerbils and is mandatory in SPF vivariums. Short-term
rodent colonies may be exempt from surveillance only if they meet
the following criteria:
-
The colony will only be in existence for 6 weeks or less
-
All of the animals from the original colony will be eliminated
and the room completely emptied and sanitized before any new animals
are placed
-
Animals originate from an OCV approved SPF colony or vendor
-
Animals from the untested colony will not share laboratory space
or equipment with animals from long-term colonies
2. Selection
of sentinel animal: Outbred stocks
are generally used because they show a more robust immune response and are less expensive. Inbred strains
may be used when extra animals from in-house programs are available if they are immuno-compotent. Immunodeficient mice (such as SCID or nu/nu
including heterozygote immunodeficient mice) should not be used
as sentinel animals.
Generally females
are selected in order to avoid housing aggressive males.
Adult rodents are used to be sure no maternal antibodies are present
in sentinels, which could confound results.
3. Age
& Sex: Sentinel
rodents should be at least 8 weeks of age when placed in the room.
Sentinels should be maintained in same sex groups. Female littermates
are recommended over males due to decreased aggressiveness and fighting.
The sex of the sentinel animals must also be considered when housed
in rooms where hormonal influences may affect research objectives.
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First Approved: May 15, 2002, Revised/Approved by WSU IACUC July 29th,
2009 |
