JAX® Mice animal health program

The Jackson Laboratory is committed to setting quality standards in animal care and to assuring that these standards are maintained throughout all of our mouse colonies. The Jackson Laboratory's Animal Health Program is comprised of importation, diagnostic, clinical medicine, and pathology groups and is designed to:

  1. Assure the health and well-being of our animal colonies by routine and extensive monitoring for undesirable infectious agents.
  2. Prevent the entry of infectious agents by rederivation and strict health monitoring of all incoming mice.
  3. Minimize the opportunity for transmission of infectious agents between cages through the use of microisolator caging and adherence to rigorous animal health practices.

All JAX® Mice are bred and maintained in barrier facilities. Procedures for barrier facilities include sanitation or sterilization of all supplies and equipment entering the barrier. Personnel working in standard or higher level barrier facilities are required to scrub their hands or shower prior to entry and to wear gloves and sterilized clothing, including shoes, caps, and masks. Access to all animal rooms is limited to personnel who have a work assignment in that room.

Jackson Laboratory animal care procedures for JAX® Mice and mice maintained in Research colonies are very similar. Jackson Laboratory animal care procedures include provision of sterilized bedding, autoclaved or irradiated feed, acidified drinking water, and filter cage covers. Mice are transferred to clean microisolator cages using disinfected forceps, except for a few strains in which newborn litters may be transferred by a disinfected gloved hand. All caging equipment is washed in barrier processing facilities that are closely monitored for effective decontamination of processed equipment and supplies.

All new strains of mice brought into our Production or Research facilities are quarantined in isolators, rederived, and maintained in isolated barrier facilities while post-derivation health status is verified. Mice used as foster mothers in the rederivation program are from a colony with defined aerobic flora. These quarantine activities are conducted in The Jackson Laboratory Importation Facility, which is physically separated from all Production and Research animal rooms.

Our diagnostic program serves to:

  1. verify the health status of animals that have been rederived in the importation facility before release to breeding colonies;
  2. monitor against potential disease outbreaks in the Production and Research colonies;
  3. determine epidemiological parameters of strain-specific lesions;
  4. help differentiate new mutations from infectious disease problems; and
  5. develop, as needed, new molecular and serological assays for selected microbial agents.

The Jackson Laboratory Diagnostic Laboratory routinely monitors animal health status using statistically valid sampling procedures and recognized serological and molecular testing protocols. The List of Agents Monitored page lists the selected agents monitored in JAX® Mice, including bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi. Results of diagnostic tests are summarized by room and posted on the JAX® Mice web site. In addition, all mouse shipments are accompanied by the Health Status Report for each room that provided mice in the shipment.

In addition to routine surveillance, The Jackson Laboratory Animal Health Program includes a clinical medicine program that helps to identify mice that appear abnormal and assists in the performance of clinical investigation under circumstances that suggest that an infectious disease problem might exist in an animal colony. The clinical medicine group works cooperatively with the Diagnostic Laboratory to ensure the effectiveness of room cleaning procedures and procedures for the disinfection of animal room equipment and supplies. All cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization procedures are monitored using the most appropriate microbiological techniques.

The Jackson Laboratory's clinical medicine and health monitoring programs are complemented by a comprehensive pathology program. Necropsies are performed on animals that appear ill. As well, the pathological effects of new gene mutations are analyzed systematically. Preliminary pathological analyses of mice carrying new mutations is critical and is a prerequisite to determining the mutation's value in biomedical research.

As a biomedical research institution and a supplier of the world's broadest array of mouse models for research, The Jackson Laboratory is uniquely positioned to fully use the wealth of information derived from our diagnostic, clinical medicine, importation, and pathology groups to develop a better understanding of the diseases of laboratory mice, develop procedures to diagnose and prevent these diseases, and assist in the development of new mouse models of human disease.