Margaret M. Dickie, Ph.D. 



APPENDIX III 



Methods of Keeping Records 



Any system of keeping records must insure that searches of pedigrees may easily 

 locate collateral relatives to the animal in question as well as its ancestors and its 

 progeny; or to state it another way, the record system must insure that one can start 

 with any given mouse and trace backward, forward, and laterad. Systems of keeping 

 records should also include many biographical details of the stock in question. 



The methods of keeping records for various types of mice, for example, inbred 

 strains, genetic deviants, or experimental animals, vary widely in details but all systems 

 have the same basic skeleton. The methods generally in use consist of (1) ledger(s), 

 (2) pedigree card, (3) cage tag, (4) card file, and (5) pedigree chart. 



Ledger and Identification System. — The ledgers in use at the Jackson Laboratory are 

 either spiral type notebooks or bookkeeping ledgers. Two to four pages at the be- 

 ginning of the ledgers are left free for notes about the animals that will be recorded 

 in the book, about the experiments, the kinds of mice that will be recorded in the 

 ledger, and so on. Following these note pages, on the next page the lines are numbered 

 consecutively beginning with 01 and going through 99, then 101 through 199, 201 

 through 299, 301 through 399, and so forth. Note that the number 00, 100, 200 and 

 so on are omitted since this would mean an unmarked animal in this identification 

 system. The animals are earmarked with a common poultry punch according to the 

 code shown in figure 7 1 . 



The ledger may be used for a single strain or mutant stock, or if the colony is 

 small, all animals may be recorded in a single, master ledger. Whichever method is 



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