Full-scale research projects often call 
for absolute isolation of animals exposed 
to disease. Other projects hold a small 
number of test animals together as a 
herd or flock. In both situations, the 
isolation rooms permit the safe use of 
enough test animals to assure scientists 
of statistically sound and significant re- 
search results. 
Walls, floors, and ceilings of the labo- 
ratories are smooth concrete surfaces, 
easily decontaminated with live steam. 
Doors to isolation rooms are steel. The 
rooms have showers for workers and in- 
dividual feed storage bins. 
Corridors in each wing zone are served 
by an overhead monorail that leads to 
the post mortem rooms and the large 
incinerator in the central building core. 
After carcasses are moved by monorail, 
the corridor is sterilized before reuse. 
In each building, an incinerator having 
a capacity of 1,000 pounds per hour is 
used to dispose of all research animals at 
the end of the experiments. 
Another unit in building 3 has six 
copper-enclosed rooms for use in work 
requiring electronic equipment. Shielded 
walls, floors, and ceilings prevent inter- 
ference from outside electrical forces 
during exacting physiological studies, 
such as the measurement of brain im- 
pulses. Research workers can observe 
test animals in the operating room 
through an observation window. 
Experiments with individual large ani- 
mals are short term, usually less than 3 
months. 
Quarantine Area 
Disease-free animals are used in re- 
search at the Ames laboratory. The ani- 
mal colony is held in a closely guarded 
quarantine area, where rigorous precau- 
tions are taken to prevent introduction of 
disease from the surrounding community. 
To provide research workers with ani- 
mals of known pedigree and health, the 
National Animal Disease Laboratory has 
its own breeding herds and flocks. These 
animals—eattle, hogs, poultry, guinea 
pigs, and rabbits—are from stocks which 
were maintained disease-free at Belts- 
ville for as long as 30 years. Some ani- 
mals are purchased from commercial 
breeders who provide uniform, high qual- 
ity disease-free stock. 
The quarantine area contains 21 hold- 
ing buildings for animals. These build- 
ings are constructed of sandwich panels 
of reinforced concrete insulated with 
plastic foam. Smooth concrete interior 
surfaces are easily sterilized and cannot 
be damaged by animals. Large animals 
are brought to these buildings to be held 
in quarantine until needed for research. 
The mastitis barn, for long-term study 
of one of the Nation’s costliest animal 
diseases, is located on the north edge of 
the quarantine area. In this building, 
veterinarians are investigating the effects 
es 
N—40813 
Poultry cages with controlled temperature and humidity 
in animal isolation laboratory. 
13 
