HUSBANDRY, EQUIPMENT, AND PROCUREMENT OF MICE 645 



known pathogens for mice via such items as equipment, food, and water, by personnel, 

 and should prevent transmission of disease between cages of grouped animals or between 

 mouse rooms. 



The flow of traffic should be arranged so that cross or back traffic is avoided. 

 This implies separate exits and entrances for used and clean equipment and materials. 

 Personnel locks should be provided for entrance and exit of caretakers and other types 

 of personnel to mouse rooms and to clean equipment, food, and bedding areas. Lockers 

 and washing facilities in them should be arranged so that personnel may enter, remove 

 street shoes and outer garments, step into a clean area or on a platform, wash and scrub 

 hands and arms, don work clothes and footgear (only used in the mouse room to be 

 entered), and then enter the animal area. The procedures are reversed for departure. 



Mouse-room walls and floors, fixed racks, and other immovable items should be 

 cleaned with mops, sponges, or cloths dampened with a residual type of disinfectant 

 such as the quaternary ammonium compounds. Sweeping and dusting should be 

 prohibited to avoid transferring agents of disease [including endoparasite eggs such as 

 oxyurids (pinworms)]. Wet-vacuum cleaning equipment is also as useful in animal 

 husbandry as in promoting asepsis in hospital operating suites. Different personnel 

 should be used for each general area as follows: 



1 . Equipment assembly (from washing machines to autoclaves) and clean equip- 

 ment, food, and material delivery. 



2. Individual mouse rooms. 



3. Used equipment and waste area (including the dirty phase of sanitizing 

 equipment). 



Personnel from one area should never enter another except in the above sequence 

 or by going through all procedures of washing and changing clothes previously 

 mentioned. 



Bedding may be purchased sterilized or sanitized (ground corn cob such as San-i- 

 cal,f clay material such as Ster-o-lit,J packaged shavings) or may be sterilized on the 

 premises. Steam autoclaves may be used for sterilizing bedding and have an advantage 

 in that the outside wrappings of feed (in plastic or metal containers) may be decon- 

 taminated by flowing steam. Ethylene-oxide autoclaving should not be used for 

 treatment of feeds or bedding materials. 



Food may also serve as a vehicle for introducing agents of disease. Treatment 

 of food with dry heat (baking) is satisfactory provided sufficient heat-sensitive vitamins 

 and other such ingredients are added before or after treatment to offset the loss or 

 diminution by heat. There is a need for better techniques in the field of decontamina- 

 tion of food. Pasteurization, or sterilization and methods used by manufacturers, 

 should be reviewed carefully. This should include scrutiny of actual methods of 

 treatment, of evaluation of ingredients of feed after processing, and of methods for 



t Walter F. Fisher & Sons, Inc., Bound Brook, N.J. 



% T. C. Ashley & Co., 683 Atlantic Avenue, Boston 11, Mass. 



