Biotech Center Barrier Improvement Project

描述(由申请人提供)：生物技术中心设施是匹兹堡大学动物项目中几个无病原体改良屏障动物设施之一。该设施目前采用特定的操作程序、病原体监测计划、服装要求、微型隔离器笼子系统、生物安全柜和HEPA过滤的层流动物转运站来维护屏障。尽管做出了这些努力，但生物技术中心的屏障并不是最理想的，因为高压灭菌能力不足以应付工作量，而且目前没有有效的机制来净化进入屏障设施的材料。为加强预防啮齿动物的传染病，我们拨款的具体目的是： 1.将过时和尺寸过小的灭菌器更换为适合该设施目前需要和未来动物护理增长的散装高压灭菌器； 2.安装一条新的双氧水汽化喷雾隧道，对移入屏障设施的物料进行净化；以及 3.将未得到充分利用的办公区改建成新的储藏室，以取代为完成目标1和目标2而进行的翻修中损失的储存空间。 现有的蒸汽灭菌器有三方面的限制：尺寸限制、使用年限和适用性。生物技术中心现有的环氧乙烷灭菌器陈旧，3年前就不能使用了。我们建议将现有的蒸汽灭菌器和不起作用的ETO灭菌器更换为配备装载车的现代扩大容量蒸汽灭菌器，以提高效率。这项申请是为实现这些目标提供289,623美元的NCRR-NIH支助资金。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Biotech Center facility is maintained as one of several pathogen-free modified barrier animal facilities in the animal program at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility currently employs specific operating procedures, pathogen surveillance programs, garbing requirements, micro-isolator caging systems, biological safety cabinets, and HEPA-filtered laminar flow animal transfer stations to maintain the barrier. Despite these efforts, the barrier at the Biotech Center is suboptimal because autoclaving capacity is insufficient for the workload and because no efficient mechanism currently exists to decontaminate material moving into the barrier facility. To enhance the prevention of communicable disease in rodents our specific aims for this funding are to: 1. Replace obsolete and undersized sterilizers with a bulk autoclave suitable to meet current needs and future growth in animal care at the facility; 2. Install a new vaporized hydrogen peroxide misting tunnel for decontamination of material to be moved into the barrier facility; and 3. Convert an underutilized office area into a new storage room to replace storage space lost in the renovations to complete aims 1 and 2. The limitations of the existing steam autoclave are threefold: size limitations, age, and serviceability. The existing ethylene oxide sterilizer in Biotech Center is obsolete and became nonfunctional 3 years ago. We propose to replace the existing steam autoclave and the nonfunctional ETO sterilizer with a modern enlarged capacity steam sterilizer equipped with a loading car for increased efficiency. This request is for $289,623 in NCRR-NIH support funds to meet these aims.