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Transgenic Resources Program
Resource Services and Contacts | Staff | TRP
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COLONY MANAGEMENT
A mouse colony may be established by purchasing a strain of mice from any UW approved vendor (such as Charles River , Jackson Labs, or Taconic Farms) or receiving mice from collaborators within the UW SPF (Specific Pathogen Free) facilities. Mice obtained from unapproved vendors are required to undergo quarantine for eight weeks before clearance is granted, and are released only if the sentinels test negative for all microbes for which the K-wing SPF or Harborview Research Teaching (HRT) barriers are free. Once the colony is established, the following services may be requested from the Colony Management Group: breeding, record keeping, identification tagging, tail and ear punch biopsying, and special services by arrangement. Please note there are fees involved.
Types of services
Fees are calculated on the number of cages involved. Please
contact us for further details.
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BREEDING
New mouse colonies are housed in one of the Colony Management Group’s designated rooms and given at least one week to acclimate before being subjected to experimental use. The investigator begins paying per diem charges (cage costs) and colony management fees on the day the mice arrive. Breeding and colony expansion may proceed when the mice reach sexual maturity. Breeding protocol is dependent on an investigator’s preferred breeding scheme and may be either monogamous or polygamous. A breeding pair (1 female x 1 male) is encouraged for strains that typically produce large litters to avoid cage overcrowding before the pups reach weaning age. A breeding trio (2 females x 1 male) is preferred for strains that produce smaller litters in order to optimize per diem fees. A harem is not usually desirable (3 or more females x 1 male per cage); however, if a strain requires rescuing from extinction, a valuable male may rotate between eight females, two per cage, for two-week intervals. Gestation periods typically last between 18 and 22 days.
Depending on strain, the number of neonates dropped may vary from one to sixteen per litter and are born resembling their parents physically. Ear flaps fully develop on day 4; a full coat of hair is grown and ears open on day 10; eyelids open on day 13 and pups are ready to eat adult food at two weeks of age. Around this time, supplements of breeder chow (high fat) and electrolyte gel are placed on the floor of the cage to prepare them for weaning. Weaning will occur between the 21 st to 28 th days of age.
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RECORD KEEPING
Colony inventory sheets are sent to investigators and designated laboratory contacts starting one week after arrival to the Colony Management group. The sheets will indicate status and location of the mice which are housed at a maximum of 5 per cage. The inventory sheet also reports information such as strain, tag number, generation, birth date, gender, and line number. Breeding sheets are sent once the mice are set up for mating. Both colony inventory and breeding sheets are updated weekly and sent via email one day before the work week begins. These sheets are archived up to 90 days and accessible for anyone who may wish to retrieve old data.
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TAGGING AND TAILING
Weaned pups are individually identified with numbered metal ear tags before ear or tail biopsies are taken. An ear punch or tail sample is ~ 0.5 cm long and placed in a plastic, microfuge tube numbered correspondingly. Lab contacts are informed when the biopsies and data sheets are ready for pick up. Genotyping results are sent to Ruby Sue Mangalindan, Colony Management Program Manager, for proper notation on the cage card and the colony sheet. Laboratory contacts are advised to reduce their colony cage count once the important mice and their control cohorts are identified for experimentation (or for shipping purposes) to make space for upcoming weanlings.
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OTHER SERVICES BY ARRANGEMENT
Euthanasia of unwanted or excess mice is one of the services that colony management offers to release cage rack spots and minimize per diem fees.
Shipping or transferring of mice is an additional service. Please click here to view details on the protocol for outgoing rodents. Once the shipping date and time are arranged, mice are boxed in transport container(s) and set out at the designated pick-up areas (K-002 service elevator lobby or 2nd floor HRT loading dock for the K-wing SPF Facility and HRT Facility, respectively). It is important to note that mice should be shipped to international destinations on or before Tuesdays, and within the continental USA on or before Wednesdays to insure acceptance of mice by the receiving institution before the weekend . If the transfer is to a local lab, mice are sent to the investigators in cardboard boxes for terminal studies only. For SPF/barrier transfers, mice are packed in autoclaved Taconic boxes, or sent in their own cages to minimize handling and reduce stress on the animals. Cages should be returned to the K-wing passenger elevator lobby and placed in the bags provided there for this purpose. To request a specific mouse or mice, please send email to Ruby Sue Mangalindan and cc Ashot Safarli at least one day prior to the scheduled experiment so the errand can be conducted without delay.
Investigators may request any special technical services as needed for their study such as dissection, stool check, blood and tissue collection, urinalysis, hormone injection, timed-mating, drug or cell injection, irradiation, fasting, diet change, weighing, health or behavior monitoring, tumor assessment, etc., by completing and returning the Breeding Colony Management Request Form.
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FEES
Colony Management service fees are calculated from the number of cages involved on procedures listed in the Transgenic Resource Program recharge worksheet (Ask Ruby for details). Any special service request required for the study (including shipping and transferring) is charged as technician time at $52.63 per hour, with a minimum charge of 30 minutes per task.
HOW TO START? Please complete and return the Breeding Colony Management Request Form located on our TRP Forms page
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