Health Status of HSRB Facility

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The Health Sciences Research Building (HSRB) was opened in 2013 and is Emory's designated high-end SPF facility where mice are managed free of murine norovirus, mouse parvovirus, Helicobacter species and fur mites enzootic to various degrees in other Emory facilities. The HSRB animal research facility may also house rats, aquatic animals and potentially rabbits in isolation from the mice. Rodents housed at the site are acquired from the barrier production colonies of approved vendors or rederived using embryo transfer or sperm fertilization techniques and not via live rodent quarantine or direct transfer from other Emory facilities. The HSRB colonies are isolated from other Emory sites using a combination of physical separation, dedicated staffing, controlled traffic patterns, enhanced PPE, and other programmatic measures. All rodents are housed in autoclaved microisolator cages on static racks or ventilated racks with reverse osmosis filtered automated watering supply and are accessed only in laminar air flow hoods. Irradiated diet is fed universally. The 13,944 gross square foot HSRB animal research facility is confined to the ground level and has 8 animal housing rooms ranging in size from 319 to 346 net square feet, 3 cubicle suites with 17 total cubicles comprising 49-56 net square feet each, 4 procedure rooms and is the location of Emory's Transgenic Mouse Facility. As designed, the facility has a capacity for 6,000+ mouse cages. The dirty side cage handling in the wash facility is roboticized.

The health status of the rodent colonies in the HSRB is evaluated quarterly via serology and PCR performed on sentinel animals and outsourced to commercial laboratories. In all mouse rooms, up to 4 sentinel cages, each containing two, 4 week old female CF1 mice, are placed on every rack and replaced quarterly. Each sentinel cage monitors 35-70 colony cages. Three times a week, each pair of sentinel mice is placed directly into a soiled colony cage immediately after its occupants have been removed. At the end of 3 months, the sentinel cage is replaced and the exposed sentinels are held 4-6 weeks for seroconversion and are then euthanized for health monitoring. All mouse colonies are tested quarterly via PCR for helicobacter, pinworms and fur mites, and via MFIA serology for MPV, MVM, NS-1, MHV, MNV, GDVII(TMEV), EDIM(ROTA-A), Sendai, PVM, REO3, LCMV, ectromelia, MAV1&2, K, polyoma, MCMV, and m. pulmonis.

Emory University colonies are not regularly screened for, but are believed to be free of the following pathogens: Mouse thymic virus (MTV, MTLV), Lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus (LDEV), Bordetella bronchiseptica, CAR Bacillus, Hantavirus, Corynebacterium kutscheri, Streptobacillus moniliformis, Salmonella, Citrobacter rodentium and pathogenic streptococci.

While we have no reason to believe that there are other murine pathogens in this facility, we recommend that all shipments of live animals from Emory University be isolated from existing rodent colonies until confirmatory health assessments can be done. Additional testing can be performed upon request of the receiving institution. For questions regarding shipments/health status/testing, please contact the Animal Health Quality Assurance Manager in the Division of Animal Resources at 404-712-9902.