title: A simple transport system for radiation treatment of specific pathogen-free mice in lifetime studies.
abstract: To prevent the introduction of pathogens, specific pathogen-free (SPF) facilities generally have a "once out, never back" policy with respect to animals and materials. In a lifetime study of the long-term effects of ionizing radiation exposure in mice, large numbers of SPF mice needed to be transported from clean-animal barrier labs to a multiuser conventional building for radiation treatment and then back into the animal facility. The conventional building is known to harbor wild mice as well as insects, spiders, and mites, and this situation might potentiate the transfer of wild mouse pathogens to laboratory animals. Introduction of pathogens into the mouse population would jeopardize the entire study, but the radiation treatments were an essential component of the study. These considerations prompted development of a system for transporting individual animals out of and back into the facility without exposure to pathogens. The system consists of reusable transport/treatment vessels and transport protocols designed to minimize the potential for pathogen exposure.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Biology and Health Physics Branch, AECL Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario K0J 1J0, Canada.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: McCann
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wyatt
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Carlisle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006799:Housing, Animal / Q000592:standards*; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D014186:Transportation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D014916:Whole-Body Irradiation / Q000662:veterinary