13 April, 2016

Husbandry
Within one week, the food intake decreases, so theres little effect from
using purified diet during that time; we wont see an effect yet.
Mice need more food per body weight compared to rats, since they lose
more temperature (larger surface/volume ratio).
The temperature in the room can also have an effect on food intake.
Ad libitum feeding causes health problems, compared to moderated and
marked diet. The ideal is to give 80% of the food the animals need,
however if there are several animals in a cage, then one will feed more
than the others. A solution for this is either lone caging or timed feeding
(i.e. not having food available all the time).
Note that mice are more active at night than during the day do not
remove food before surgery the next morning (also, reflux is not possible
in mice, so it is not a concern for surgery, although it can be for
anesthesia).
To clean the water, UV light is not good, given that there may be
something in the pipes between sterilization and the fountain where the
mouse drinks. Acidification is used, but the excess of chlorine can be
problematic (animals stop drinking).
Using water to provide the animals with drugs can be difficult (low pH and
high chlorine), given that it modifies the antibiotics/drugs. Light can also
affect the stability of drugs/antibiotics; a solution can be to introduce
autoclaved water and introduce the drugs after.
If we want to continuously apply a drug, we need to do it actively, not just
put it in water, since the animal will take a lot during night and less during
day.
To sterilize food, autoclaving can be inconvenient (changes nutrients; do
all the pellets of food get equally heated everywhere in the food sacks?
We can test whether there are antibiotic resistant bacteria by placing food
pellets from the center in culture medium and checking for bacterial
growth), whereas irradiation may (always?) be fine.
For body weight, measure both morning and evening. For young animals,
we should have continuous increase, if theres stabilization something is
wrong (we should have a control group to determine if the experiment is
affecting body weight). An alternative to using a control group can be to
use some diagrams (I think its called body score, instead of body weight)
to determine whether the animal is OK.

Normal light can cause damage to mice. Mice are red-blind, they see UV
region better this is why the cages are made of red materials, so you
can see the animal and they cannot see you (they feel protected).
Constant light can be problematic and disturb the animals. 14:10 cycles
can be better for breeding, compared to 12:12 cycles.
To avoid peaks of noise, we can try having a radio on all the time (24h).
The best music can be classical music.
Light, noise, air are the most important parameters.
Cardboard is not good for transportation mice make holes. There should
be a window, so that people can see whats inside the cage. Its important
to write that there are live animals.
The regulation to take into account is the one from the country from which
the animal is sent. The advantage of using tubes for transportation is that
they can be placed directly into the cage very easily (if an animal jumps
out of the transport container and touches the floor it cannot be used).
In transportation container, we should include water, food, bedding and
enrichment (e.g. Kleenex), even if its a short travel distance.
Depending on the country, different documents are required. In
Switzerland you only need permits if you import animals equal to or bigger
in size than a rabbit.
Mice need time to recover from transportation, as well as from other
stresses.
When transporting, its best to keep the animals as they are in the facility,
otherwise they may start to fight. A separation may be introduced, but
take into account that if there are male and female and theres only a
separation the male can smell the female and they start to fight. Again:
regrouping of the animals is not recommended.
If we know that the animals are young (<20g), then keep them as they
are now (in groups), and take into account that they will continue growing
(*no ho he entes molt be). Regrouping should take place when they are 68 months old.

14.04.2016
Health management
Germ-free / axigenic: these are animals that are not associated to any
forms of life they do not even have gut bacteria (in this case they
require special food).
In gnotobiotic mice, we grab them with an instrument and not gloves,
because if the animal bites the gloves there may be contamination.
Conventional or OHC animals: you work in the same environment as the
animals, so you have to consider that you may bring contamination.
FELASA recommends doing testing for contamination every 3 months, so
that the amount of results lost is not too large.
FELASA recommends 10 animals per unit, where a unit is the place to
which no animals come from outside (a unit can be a room or several
rooms, in case there is transfer between the rooms).

Surgery
Hemostasis: how to close blood vessels? First, place a vessel clamp.
Then, close it forever: (1) the safest is to do a ligature by placing suture
material around the vessel, although its time consuming; (2)
electrocautery (there is current through the forceps), which is quick but
limited to mid-sized animals; (3) hemostatic clip is seldom used, very
quick (and expensive), and it is inconvenient because a metal remains in
the animal (inconvenient for subsequent MRI scans).
An outbred background creates twice the amount of pups compared to
an inbred background.