Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences (SSBS) established a laboratory
animal facility in March 2013. The facility was registered for the first
time with the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of
Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) on October 4, 2013. During the renewal
of registration in 2018, SSBS also received additional permission for
breeding small laboratory animals (mice and rats) for in-house use. SSBS
also has an Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC), which is also
approved and registered with CPCSEA. According to the CPCSEA
recommendations, Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) for animal facilities
are followed at SSBS to ensure the quality and safety of animals used in
laboratory research when conducting animal experiments.
The facility is located in specially designed building with over 1500 sq.
ft. area. The specified rooms are available for quarantine, animal
breeding, housing experimental mice, rats, poultry, and rabbits,
procedure room, necropsy area and so on. These areas are maintained
under environmental controlled conditions [Air Handling Units (AHU) and
air conditioners] for temperature, humidity and dark & light cycles. We
have experience using immunocompromised (nude) mice as well as
transgenic mice for a variety of experimental studies. The transgenic
mice (B6.SJL-Ptprc a Pepcb/BoyJ and C57BL/6-Tg (UBC-GFP)30Scha/J) were
successfully imported in 2018 from The Jackson Laboratory, United States
and have been efficiently maintained and bred at SSBS animal facility
since then.
The facility’s primary responsibility is to maintain and supply
high-quality animals, as well as to help in-house researchers in
carrying out investigations in accordance with IAEC-approved proposals.
All activities at the animal facility are carried out in line with
standard operating procedures (SOPs) given by CPCSEA. All records
pertaining to day-to-day operations, including maintenance and
experimentation records of the animals, in accordance with the CPCSEA's
statutory requirements are documented and stored. We have an expert
in-house veterinarian and a well-versed laboratory staff to help and
assist in experiments involving animals. Furthermore, to comply with the
quarantine period, animals are quarantined and tested for
microbiological and endo-ecto parasites. Only those animals which pass
the quarantine period examination are certified for use for experimental
purpose.
Major equipment in laboratory animal facility include Individually
Ventilated Cages (IVC) system and cages for mice and rats, conventional
housing system for rodents and rabbits, bio-safety cabinet (Class-II
A-2), gaseous anaesthesia machine, CO2 incubator for animal tissue
culture work, cooling centrifuge, inverted phase contrast microscope
with camera, egg incubator/hatcher and bird isolators for experiments in
chickens etc.
