Animal Resource Center
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
W. John Durfee, DVM, DACLAM, Director
Contact:
| Main Office |
 216-368-3490 |
|
| Veterinarians |
216-368-3490 |
|
| Veterinary Technicians |
216-368-2507 |
|
|
|
|
Serves: Case Western Reserve University research community
Overview
The Animal Resource Center of Case Western Reserve University has programmatic responsibility for veterinary and husbandry care of all animals used at Case Western Reserve University. The ARC employs three full veterinarians who are responsible for providing veterinary care and preventative medicine programming for all animals. William J. Durfee, DVM, DACLAM as Director of the Animal Resource Center, is responsible for ensuring that the entire program conforms to all existing guidelines and regulations. Nanette Kleinman, DVM, DACLAM as Associate Director and Head of Veterinary Services, is responsible for all veterinary care/preventative medicine programs. Drs. Kleinman and Mark Jamba DVM have clinical responsibilities and provide veterinary care in assigned areas. All three veterinarians review Animal Care and Use Protocols and give research personnel advice in designing experimental procedures to ensure that humane needs of the animals are considered in experimental design. The veterinarians have twenty-four hour access to all central and satellite animal facilities. Drs. Durfee, Kleinman and Jamba are full time employees of the Animal Resource Center and one hundred percent of their time is devoted to supporting the animal care and use program of the institution. Animals are housed in four central animal facilities. The main central facility is the Health Sciences Animal facility is located in the basement of the Biomedical Research Building in the School of Medicine. This is a conventional 83,000 square foot facility. The facility underwent major renovation beginning in 2007. This restricted access facility houses several operational units specializing in housing and care of animals used in all aspects of research at CASE. A high level rodent barrier, integrated BSL2/BSL3 suite, quarantine facilities, large and farm animal housing units, large animal surgery area and specific pathogen free rodent housing areas are included in the facility. The Wolstein Animal Facility is a 25,000 sq. ft. rodent barrier facility located in the subbasement of the Wolstein Research Building. The other central facilities include the 3,500 gross square foot Wearn Animal Facility located in the Wearn Research Building of adjacent University Hospitals and the 12,500 gross square foot MetroHealth Medical Center (MHMC) animal facility located in Charles H. Rammelkamp, Jr. Center for Education and Research on the MetroHealth Medical Center campus approximately 6 miles from the central ARC facility. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine was granted full accreditation by AAALAC in 1990. The program was granted CONTINUED FULL ACCREDITATION in 1993, 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2005. The current accreditation date is November 23, 2005. An assurance letter (PHS Assurance A3145-01) is on file with the Office for Laboratory Animal Welfare at NIH. All animals are purchased from approved vendors. Rodents arriving from approved vendors are placed directly in animal housing rooms. Rodents from nonstandard sources with a pathogen-free health are quarantined in microisolator cages in one of two quarantine rooms for testing before introduction into the colony. Rodents with an unknown health status or possessing unwanted pathogens are quarantined in microisolator cages pending rederivation by embryo transfer (mice) or hysterectomy (rats). Animals in each room are observed daily for signs of illness by ARC animal technicians during the performance of their husbandry duties. Routine veterinary medical care to ill animals is provided by the veterinary technicians under the direction of the ARC veterinarians. Specialized treatments and surgical procedures are performed by the veterinarians Sentinel rodents are evaluated quarterly for the presence of selected mouse pathogens. Three times a year animals are checked for MHV, MVM, GDVII, EDIM, Pinworms and Furmites. Once annually a more extensive serology including additional tests for LCMV, MAD, Ectromelia, K virus, Polyoma virus, MTLV, EDIM, MCMV, Hantavirus, E. cuniculi, CAR bacillus are performed. Bacteriologic monitoring is performed once annually. Reports of surveillance findings are available in the ARC office, on the ARC web site and posted in the animal housing rooms. The Program for Animal Care and Use is conducted under the supervision of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee in accordance with applicable federal animal welfare regulations. All animal related research is conducted under the highest standards of humane animal care.
Page last updated: January, 2009
 |
