Improving Animal Resources at the University of Georgia

佐治亚大学(UGA)是一所大型研究密集型、赠与土地的大学，在农业和环境科学方面具有历史上的优势。十多年来，UGA一直优先考虑扩大和加强其生物医学和与健康相关的项目，这反过来又导致实验室啮齿动物的使用急剧增长，特别是小鼠。在这一增长的同时，我们已经采取行动，在新的Paul D.Coverdell生物医学和健康科学中心的现代化和高效的隔室中巩固和升级实验室啮齿动物护理。Coverdell啮齿动物隔膜(CRV)是一个大型的最先进的屏障设施，如果配备得当，可以取代老化、分散和随意配备的传统设施，成为UGA AAALAC认证的动物护理和使用计划中实验室啮齿动物的旗舰家园。UGA近年来的大量投资使CRV在装备方面取得了相当大的进展，但最近的财政紧缩阻碍了该设施的充分利用，也损害了跟上近期和预期研究增长的设备需求的努力。具体目的是提供单独通风的啮齿动物笼(IVC)系统、生物安全柜和通风换气站，以增强和扩大Coverdell啮齿动物隔膜(CRV)的能力，以满足研究需要。尽管对新的IVC系统进行了连续的投资，但CRV目前提供的住房仅足以满足当前的需求，没有额外的容量可用于已批准的新拨款或计划中的新教师招聘导致的新方案增长。由于需要缩减或关闭一些过时和低效的啮齿动物设施，并在很大程度上巩固现代高效的科沃德尔啮齿动物隔间的啮齿动物护理，这种压力进一步加剧，目前校园啮齿动物普查的80%以上都在这里。这项建议中要求的设备将使我们能够满足可预见的未来使用实验室啮齿动物模型的增长，因为UGA的生物医学科学继续扩大。我们预计明年CRV老鼠普查将增长41%。所要求的设备将提供37%的额外容量。拟议的改进将直接影响NIH现有的1270万美元资金和来自所有其他来源的2090万美元资金，包括联邦和非联邦来源。2010财年，UGA用于动物研究的资金总额达到2980万美元，比四年前增长了100%以上。正在寻求资金用于14个额外的Tecniplast SealSafe IVC机架和笼子，以提供额外的1840个笼子或额外容量的37%。为增加4个4‘IIA2级BSCs和5个通风换气站，要求提供经费，以提高动物的收容能力。该设备的总费用为670,880美元。总共需要500,000美元，而UGA提供了170,880美元的34%匹配。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Improving Animal Resources at the University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA) is a large research-intensive, land-grant university with historic strengths in the agricultural and environmental sciences. For over a decade, UGA has prioritized the expansion and strengthening of its biomedical and health-related programs, and this has in turn produced a dramatic growth in the use of laboratory rodents, particularly mice. This growth has occurred at the same time we have moved to consolidate and upgrade laboratory rodent care in the modern and efficient vivarium housed in the new Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical & Health Sciences. The Coverdell Rodent Vivarium (CRV) is a large state-of-the-art barrier facility that if properly equipped can replace aged, dispersed and haphazardly equipped conventional facilities to become the flagship home for laboratory rodents in UGA's AAALAC-accredited animal care and use program. Sizeable investments by UGA in recent years have enabled considerable progress towards the equipping of the CRV but recent fiscal austerity has prevented full utilization of the facility and also impaired efforts to keep pace with equipment needs for near term and projected research growth. The specific aim is to provide individually ventilated rodent caging (IVC) systems, biosafety cabinets and ventilated change stations to enhance and extend the capabilities of the Coverdell Rodent Vivarium (CRV) to meet research needs. Despite successive investments in new IVC systems, housing now available in the CRV is sufficient only to meet current needs, with no additional capacity available for new grants already approved for funding or for new programmatic growth resulting from planned new faculty hires. The strain has been exacerbated by the need to downsize or close a number of outdated and inefficient rodent facilities, and to largely consolidate rodent care in the modern efficient Coverdell Rodent Vivarium, which now houses over 80% of the campus rodent census. The equipment requested in this proposal will allow us to meet foreseeable future growth in the use of laboratory rodent models as the biomedical sciences at UGA continue to expand. We project that the CRV mouse census will grow by 41% during the next year. The requested equipment will provide 37% additional capacity. The improvements proposed will directly affect $12.7 million in active NIH funding and $20.9 million in funding from all other sources, both federal and non-federal. UGA's total funding for animal-based research reached $29.8 million in FY2010, increasing over 100% from just four years ago. Funding for 14 additional Tecniplast Sealsafe IVC racks and caging is being sought to provide an additional 1840 cages or 37% of additional capacity. Funding for 4 additional 4' Class IIA2 BSCs and 5 additional ventilated change stations is requested to enhance animal holding capabilities. The total cost of the equipment is $670,880. A total of $500,000 is requested with UGA providing a 34% match of $170,880.