EXPANSION OF THE RRF CAGE WASH FACILITY

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Georgetown University has established a centralized animal care and use program which is based in the Research Resources Facility (RRF). The RRF is a state-of-the-art AAALAC accredited facility which supports both biomedical research and education. Georgetown University also has expanded the RRF's professional staff which now includes three full-time veterinarians, three full-time licensed veterinary technicians, and a full- time building engineer. With the support and guidance of the Georgetown University Animal Care and Use Committee (GUACUC) which serves at the active overseer of the animal care and use program, Georgetown's commitment of animal research has become a key component to its biomedical research program. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in biomedical research at Georgetown. Since FY 1986, the amount of NIH supported grants and contracts has more than doubled. Parallel to this has been an increase in animal research such that the RRF currently is working at over 90% capacity. Because of the increasing animal research activity, Georgetown is now designing an RRF expansion project which will provide a doubling of existing animal and research support space. Once completed, the expanded RRF will remain a single, centralized facility on one level. However, by doubling the size of the RRF, there clearly will be an increased service demand upon existing centralized RRF support facilities, particularly the cage wash facility. The RRF's existing cage wash facility is working at about 80% capacity with machinery that was rebuild at the time of the RRF's original construction and which has become increasingly dysfunctional. It is estimated that the cage washing load for the expanded RRF may double and therefore exceed the RRF's current capacity to keep cages and equipment clean. This will jeopardize the quality of the Georgetown University animal care and use program. The specific goal of this proposal is to increase the cage cleaning capacity of the existing RRF's cage wash facility by physically expanding the existing facility and by purchasing new and larger cage wash equipment. The expanded cage wash facility will preserve the RRF's restricted/general access corridor system and will provide a more efficient centralized resource for cage cleaning functions. Once completed, the new RRF cage wash facility will be able to handle double the current load. This project is essential and timely to keep pace with Georgetown University's growing animal research activity while maintaining its AAALAC accreditation status and its compliance with federal laws and policies.