Rapid Quarantine of Mouse Models

How mice and rats benefit from a 3Rs quarantine approach

When a lab animal moves from one facility to another, it is imperative that researchers ensure they will not bring any bugs into the new lab. Quarantine is intended to assess animals’ health status and test for potential contamination, so the new mice won’t make the old mice sick.

Traditional standard quarantine uses sentinel rodents. New animals are unpacked, their dirty bedding is used in the cages of sentinel animals, and then researchers wait for any contaminants to infect the sentinels. This process, including waiting for contaminants to emerge and the testing associated with standard quarantine, can take 10 weeks. Due to this time lag, Charles River has convinced many vivariums that direct animal sampling for PCR-based testing can replace sentinels, a 3Rs improvement.

“Charles River has always had the 3Rs mindset of continually refining our approach,” said Chris Dowdy, Associate Director Scientific Development for Charles River’s Research Models Service. “Rapid quarantine is a logical continuation of that.”

Compared with the standard, Rapid Quarantine typically takes only two weeks, following a standard timeline.

• Mice arrive at a Charles River facility.
• Mice are tested through oral swabs, fecal samples, and body samples while being unpacked.
• They will stay in IVC cages for one - two weeks as the tests are compiled, and their health is confirmed.
• Once they are confirmed clean, they are transferred to shipping crates before their cages need to be cleaned.

The speed of the quarantine period means the animals will not need to be handled much, which reduces stress, a refinement over standard quarantine. Eliminating the need for sentinel animals reduces the number of animals needed. Using rapid instead of standard quarantine, therefore, hits two of the 3Rs for responsible lab animal use.

The evidence for a two-week quarantine being as safe as standard has been piling up for years. In one long-term client’s instance, including 351 quarantined cohorts over the last ten years, not one group that tested clean on arrival developed health issues between the first sample and a two-week retest.

“That validates that test on receipt gives you the right answer,” Dowdy said. “Assuming you use an industry standard courier and crate, the filters work. They don’t catch anything in transit, at least not for the last ten years.”

Finally, the use of an external provider for quarantine enhances biosecurity at the client site. If there are contaminants, they are already contained at CRL and not in your vivarium. Join our webinar July 30 to learn more about Rapid Quarantine.