Scribd
Upload
66 views3 pages

Management of Specific Pathogen Free

The document discusses the care and management of Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) animals. SPF animals must be housed and handled using strict protocols to prevent pathogen exposure. Their care involves disinfecting all equipment, monitoring health, and maintaining clean housing conditions. SPF animals are valuable for research as their pathogen-free status reduces confounding disease variables.

Uploaded by

K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
66 views3 pages

Management of Specific Pathogen Free

The document discusses the care and management of Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) animals. SPF animals must be housed and handled using strict protocols to prevent pathogen exposure. Their care involves disinfecting all equipment, monitoring health, and maintaining clean housing conditions. SPF animals are valuable for research as their pathogen-free status reduces confounding disease variables.

Uploaded by

K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Question: Management of Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) animals and their use.

Ans:

Specific-pathogen-free (SPF) animal is a term used for laboratory animals that are free of particular
microbes or pathogens .The SPF animals are used to break the cycle of infectious disease transmitted
from animals to animals as well to conduct the research experiments, Drug trails as well as to reduce the
risk of variables disease.

Care and management of Specific-pathogen-free animals.

A. Initial Care and management of SPF animals must include following points

1.Boot cleaning and disinfectant

2.decontamination of the room / units

3. Veterinary monitoring.

1.Boot cleaning and disinfectant

1. Open-toed shoes are not allowed in the animal facility. Boots should be dipped into the
disinfectant before entering to the SPF rooms. You must place shoe covers over your shoes
(provided in the ante-room) when you step into the main room.
2. Once you enter a SPF room/ MI unit, put on a room lab coat and gloves provided inside the
individual mouse rooms.
3. When leaving the mouse room, take off gloves and mask and dispose in garbage can. Wash
hands with soap and water. Remove the room lab coat (white) and hang on rack in room. 
4. Decontaminate all carts and outside materials that are brought in between the entrance doors.

2.decontamination of the room / MI units

1. After fumigation properly seal the rooms and leave overnight.


2. Disinfectant used is liquid formalin 1ml in 10% solution.
3. Rh should be maintained at 80%.
4. 2 parts of Formalin can be added to 1part crystal kmn04 for decontamination.
5. Spore-Klenz® - The brand of disinfectant solution currently used in the performance of SPF
procedures.

3. Veterinary monitoring.

1. All the units of SPF rooms are to be supervised by veterinary staff.


2. Each facility should assign one veterinary technician and a veterinarian.
3. All SPF animal care and use personnel must be trained by LAR personnel on SPF protocols.
B. Care and management of SPF animals inside the SPF rooms / units

A. SPF rooms / MI unit’s management

1. Rh of lab animals should be between 40-70%.


2. Food and bedding store should be dry and clean.
3. A vermin free collection area should be provided for collection of waste prior to deposit.
4. Special arrangement should be provided for handling carcass and radioactive material.
5. Special surgical room should be provided for operation.
6. Floor should be moist resistant’s, smooth as well non-absorbent.
7. Materials of biochemical origin cell, tissue, serum should be tested before introducing to
animals
8. Diet provided are autoclaved and ethylene oxide fumigation is done
9. Water is decontaminated with acidification / chlorination
10. Excess heat is removed from room using exhaust fan
11. Light intensity should be maintained 323 lux
12. Ideally, MI cages should only be opened in the laminar flow hood. Laminar flow hood is a unit
that provides a sterile working environment by very high efficiency filtration of the air that
circulates across the work surface.
13. Bath is the polycarbonate cage bottom located in the laminar flow hood that contains the
disinfectant solution. If the bath becomes cloudy or excessively soiled with feces or bedding, the
solution should be emptied in the sink, and box rinsed with tap water.
14. Mobile shelf unit (MSU)is a Mobile shelving unit and cover used to temporarily store and
transport clean micro-isolator cage units.

B. Screening
1. Serological examination should be done each 3 months
2. Swab samples of bedding, walls, floor, water should be examined for bacterial examination.
3. All health reports and serology reports and results must be provided by the Attending
Veterinarian. They will be kept on file by LAR staff, and available to all investigators upon
request.
4. Sick mice must be immediately reported to the Attending Veterinarian or facility manager. Sick
animals will be immediately treated or euthanized
5. Hazardous wastes like toxic carcinogenic, flammable should be kept in separate container and
disposed
Record keeping
1. Record of animals entering and exiting SPF rooms should be maintained
2. Breeding stock, purchase record should be maintained
3. Sick record
4. Death record should be maintained

STEPS OF MI TECHNIQUE FOR HANDLING SPF ROOMS/ MI UNITS AND ANIMALS


1. Follow the boot cleaning and disinfectant procedure explained above in detail
2. Check the disinfectant bath. Discard and replace solution if cloudy or excessively soiled with
faces or bedding
3. Disinfect interior surfaces of Laminar Flow Hood (LFH) with the help of disinfectant solution .
Spray the work surface, as well as the side panels with help of disinfectant spray , and wipe
excess solution off with a paper towel. do not to moisten the HEPA filter located behind the grill
facing you that forms the back wall of the LFH work area.
4. Transport MI cage(s) to the LFH.
5. Remove cage cardholder
6. Spray the disinfectant each time before letting the entry of any substance in the hood
7. Remove the filter top of the cage and place it upside down on the work surface beside the cage.
Be sure to touch only the exterior sides of the top, and not the filter material.
8. Dip the hand in disinfectant bath or spray the hand with the disinfectant each time you touch
cage materials.
9. Turn the water bottle to the upright position on the wire lid. Do not let the water bottle drip on
the filter top.
10. Retrieve the animal and perform the desired manipulations. Keep your gloves moist with
disinfectant at all times while working with in the same MI unit.
11. When the manipulations are complete, replace the wire lid on the cage and reposition the water
bottle.
12. Animals should be only changed from one cage to another in LFH.
13. Carefully place the filter top on the cage by reversing the removal technique of step #7 above.
14. Return the MI unit to the rack.
15. Repeat steps 2 through 11 each time you handle another cage.
16. When finished, wipe the LFH with a clean paper towel, Discard gloves in wastebasket.
17. Return gown to the hook located on the wall inside the room, Wash hands.
18. Exit the room. Lock the door.
19. Retrieve lab coat or other
Note: Modern LFH has two lamps u v lamp and germicidal lamp which kills the pathogens that can
accidently enters the hood.

Use of Specific pathogen free animal


1. Safety: SPF animals are less susceptible to zoonotic pathogens so it would be easy to operate
for staff and veterinarian with maximum safety
2. Research: SPF animals are used in research. Using the SPF animals, anatomical structures,
physiological, biochemical or immunological functions in a macro-organism, which has been
influenced by the micro-flora, can be studied and the control materials from those
microorganisms is determined.
3. mechanistic studies: SPF, germ-free animals may be ideally suited for mechanistic studies, with
changes in the gut microbiome being used as a tool to investigate the pathogenesis of specific
diseases.
4. Drug trail: Use of SPF animals ensures that specified diseases/ viruses do not interfere with an
experiment. For example, absence of respiratory pathogens such as influenza is desirable when
investigating a drug's effect on lung function.
5. Gnotobiology: Gnotobiology is the science of study of animals or other organisms raised in
environments free of germs or those which contain only specifically known germs. Scientists
compare gnotobiotic animals with ordinary animals whose bodies carry many germs, like
bacteria, viruses and parasites. In this way, scientists can determine more precisely how specific
germs affect a body
6. Quantification: quantification is measurement of something SPF animals are used in insulin as
well pyrogens quantification.
Also, SNF animals are used in genetic fields i.e. to determine breeding, excluding disease outbreak,
standardize health statuses etc.

You might also like