Construction of New Animal Facility Annex for West Virginia University

描述（由申请人提供）：西弗吉尼亚大学Robert C. Byrd健康科学中心正在寻求扩大对其生物医学研究活动和基础设施的支持，通过在现有的动物园内建造一个新的动物设施。该提案要求为新建22,000平方英尺的建筑提供资金。ft.动物设施附件（AFA）用于啮齿动物住房。AFA将解决西弗吉尼亚大学健康科学中心生物医学研究项目面临的两个主要问题。首先，我们目前的设施已有50多年的历史，几乎所有的原始建筑都完好无损。这个设施的设计和建造都不能满足现代实验动物园内苛刻的饲养和卫生要求，尽管努力维护，但随着时间的推移，物理植物和表面的性能已经恶化。因此，迫切需要升级，现代化的动物住房。我们已经开始了一项紧急项目，以更换我们的笼子清洗设施，并在翻新的空间中提供数量有限的新的啮齿动物饲养室。虽然这改善了笼子的清洗性能和卫生，但对于动物住房的更大问题来说，这只是一个临时措施。其次，我们正在雄心勃勃地扩展我们的生物医学研究项目。我们有大量新的和未分配的湿实验室空间，以及招聘大量新研究人员的职位和资金。我们预计严重依赖动物使用的研究领域将迅速扩大，因此必须开发动物设施资源以满足这些需求。我们目前的研究人员对动物的使用一直在以相当大的速度增长，我们无法满足额外的动物设施需求，因为在未来3-4年内，我们现有的设施预计将增加约30名新的研究人员使用动物。因此，为了满足大量生物医学研究人员对基础设施的需求，我们必须建造一个性能优越的动物设施，并有足够的能力至少在未来10年内容纳我们的动物。这个建议以一种创造性的、高效的和具有成本效益的方式体现了这些问题的解决方案。AFA的设计直接连接到我们新的笼式洗涤设施，创造一个有效的物料流动，与现有设施的活动相结合，并在很大的经济。除了提供更高质量的啮齿动物饲养能力外，两层的AFA被设计成第二层作为一个带有转基因动物核心设施的屏障单元。一楼被设计成一个更传统的设施，具有专用的生物防护核心（ABSL-3/BSL-3）。这些单位将大大加强对我们研究活动的基础设施支持，为我们的动物提供更好的科学和更好的住房条件。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center is seeking to expand support of its biomedical research activity and infrastructure by constructing a new animal facility addition to the current vivarium. This proposal requests funding for the new construction of a 22,000 net sq. ft. Animal Facility Annex (AFA) for rodent housing. The AFA would resolve two major issues confronting the biomedical research programs at the WVU Health Sciences Center. First, our present facility is over 50 years old and virtually all of the original construction is intact. This facility was not designed or constructed to meet the demanding husbandry and sanitation requirements of a modern lab animal vivarium, and the performance of the physical plant and surfaces have deteriorated over time despite efforts to maintain it. Consequently, there is a pressing need for upgraded, modern animal housing. We have begun an urgent project to replace our cage wash facility and provide a limited number of new rodent holding rooms in renovated space. Although this improves cage wash performance and sanitation, it is only a temporary measure for the larger issue of animal housing. Secondly, we are embarking on an ambitious expansion of our biomedical research programs. We have substantial new and unassigned wet laboratory space, and the positions and funds to recruit a large number of new investigators. We expect a rapid expansion in research areas that depend heavily on the use of animals and consequently must develop the animal facility resources to meet these needs. Animal use by our current investigators has been growing at a substantial rate, and we cannot meet the additional animal facility demands resulting from the expected addition of about 30 new investigators using animals over the next 3-4 years with our existing facilities. Therefore, in order to meet the infrastructure demands of a larger number of biomedical researchers it is imperative that we build an animal facility to superior specifications of performance with adequate capacity to house our animal at least for the next 10 years. This proposal embodies the solution to these problems in a creative, efficient and cost-effective manner. The AFA is designed to connect directly to our new cage wash facility, creating an efficient flow of material, integration with the activities of the existing facilities, and at great economy. In addition to providing increased high quality capacity for housing rodents, the two-floor AFA is designed with the second floor functioning as a barrier unit with a transgenic animal core facility. The first floor is designed to function as a more conventional facility with a dedicated biocontainment core (ABSL-3/BSL-3). These units will greatly enhance the infrastructure support to our research activities, provide for better science and better housing conditions for our animals.