Experimental Animal Facility at SSBS

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.