Managed Breeding Services
The Managed Breeding Service (MBS; sometimes also referred to as "Colony") is a fee-for-service elective enterprise offered by DAR to the Emory research community. Through this, DAR maintains and manages colonies of research mice for the investigators.
In doing so, the MBS aspires to facilitate research, allow laboratory technician resources greater focus on science, reduce excessive mouse production, and help to establish new strain lines of mice for scientific use at Emory. The types of breeding activities supported include genetics/line establishment (i.e., backcrossing or inbreeding beginning with F1 and N1 founders), genetics maintenance (i.e., maintaining established a strain or mutant on defined back-ground), and production (i.e., producing subjects of defined background from established colonies for research).
The MBS will breed mice, rats, hamsters or guinea pigs. Breeding colony founders are obtained from five possible sources: veterinary-approved commercial production colonies (e.g., Jax, CRL, HSD, and Taconic), the rodent quarantine programs administered by the DAR, from Emory's Transgenic Mouse Facility, via internal transfer between investigators, or from other DAR managed facilities at Emory.
Services are defined and executed via specific agreements that are drawn-up between the lab and the MBS/DAR. Please contact us with questions or to set up a breeding agreement at somdar-mbs@mscloud.emory.net. The staff of the MBS is skilled in the technical aspects of the breeding and care of rodents. While some breeding and genetics counseling is possible via this service, the MBS does not maintain formal association with a qualified mouse geneticist. Investigators requiring sophisticated genetics advice or counseling are cautioned that this generally is not available via the MBS and are advised to make their own arrangements.
Mice in the DAR Managed Breeding Service (MBS) are generally housed in either breeder pair or breeder trio housing in compliance with IACUC "Mouse Housing Density Policy" and as defined in the IACUC approved protocol for the MBS. Mice are housed in any housing modality made available by DAR based upon genotype, phenotype or lab request. Currently the program is divided into two levels of care.
LEVEL I
Level I mice are strains which are production colonies for experimental use or are being maintained so that the strain is not lost for future experimental use. Mice in this group do not require collecting biopsies for genotyping. These strains require the least amount of care. The breeding pairs/trios are simply watched for health and production and decisions are made to replace or retire the breeders as each warrants. In production mode, the mice are weaned, data recorded, cage cards generated; and then the mice are transported to the PI's normal animal facility room for use in their research (just as if they were ordered from an outside vendor). In maintenance mode, weaned mice are normally euthanized at weaning to reduce the census population except when needed to be held as replacement breeders.
DAR Managed Breeding Level 1 care includes:
- Selecting and setting up breeding pairs/trios
- Observing for pregnancies, and pregnant mice for problems before/during delivery
- Observing and evaluating newborn litters
- Monitoring and evaluating performance of breeding mice, replacing breeders as retired
- Recording data about the mice in appropriate locations
- Generating reports based on data recorded
- Arrange transport of mice from Breeding Colony to PI animal room for experimental use
- Euthanize mice which are not going to be used
- Communicating with PI and lab staff about the colony on an as-needed basis
- Making decisions for the progression of the mouse colonies based on the requirements of the PI
- Meeting with new or potential users of the DAR Managed Breeding Services
- Lab access to SoftMouse
LEVEL II
Level II mice are strains that require testing of each progeny for identification of genotype. Typical examples are mice that are bred heterozygous; strains that are newly created transgenics; mice that are being transferred from one background strain to another; test crossing to confirm parent homozygousity, or transgenic and knock-out (KO) lines being intercrossed to generate double transgenic/knockout lines for research. Level II mice require extensive care and handling.
Strains may be reduced to Level I care when testing is no longer needed as in the realization of genetic goals.
Transgenic and KO strains can also be produced/recovered with the assistance of the Emory Transgenic Core (Emory Transgenic Core). Although the Transgenic Core and the MBS are two separate entities, they periodically work together. It is the responsibility of the PI to communicate with the Transgenic Core in order to obtain/recover a strain.
Level II MBS can then be utilized to maintain or advance the strain. Strains can be moved to Level I once they meet requirements previously covered.
Level II care includes all of Level I care plus:
- Identifying individual mice for sampling using IACUC approved methods
- Collecting tissue samples for genotyping using IACUC approved methods. MBS does NOT run the genotyping on the samples. The lab can handle the samples themselves, or participate in the established service through TransnetYx.
- Identifying and recording genotype results and setting up new generations from that information
- Making test crosses to verify genotype
- Checking plugs when required for timed breeding
- Order and maintain animals for back crossing
- BackcrossingOther specialized needs as required and agreed upon by the PI
LEVEL III
Level III services include Levels I and II adding highly-skilled technical services to meet specific, time-intensive breeding needs (e.g. plug check, background strain change, supportive strain/phenotype care such as cross-fostering), and/or research specific requests (e.g. addition of lab record keeping or lab spreadsheets, participation in weekly lab meetings).
Updated: 08.24.2023