Quality Control of Laboratory Animals

The quality of laboratory animals is an essential component of reproducible biomedical research. The introduction of transgenic laboratory animals has transformed biomedical research but has complicated the management of colonies and the production of immunodeficient strains. Quality control in laboratory animals has emerged as a critical attribute in facility management to ensure high-quality, reproducible experimental data. The quality of laboratory animals is influenced by many factors. Among these factors, genetic purity and health status are the most important factors. Outbred animals are heterozygous, and their high genetic diversity resembles genetic polymorphism of humans, whereas inbred laboratory animals are characterized by homozygosity and represent a narrow genetic repertoire. Nucleic acid markers such as restriction fragment length polymorphisms, random amplified polymorphic DNA, microsatellite DNA, DNA fingerprints, and single nucleotide polymorphism are typically used as genetic markers of quality control in laboratory animals. Health monitoring is usually accomplished by a microbiological quality control program. Bacteria, viruses, and parasites cause considerable morbidity and mortality in laboratory animals and affect the quality of the research program. For microbiological monitoring, representative samples from a group of animals are tested for specific etiological agents to classify the health status of the colony. Health monitoring is critical in immunodeficient and disease-susceptible research animal models so that they remain free of opportunistic and pathogenic organisms. In this chapter, an overview of the various aspects of laboratory animal quality control is presented with special emphasis on health and genetic monitoring.