An Ammonia Abatement System for Whole-Body Small Animal Inhalation Exposures to Acid Aerosols

AbstractConducting whole-body acid aerosol inhalation exposures of laboratory animals is complicated by ammonia arising from the excrement of the test animals which is sufficient to completely neutralize much of the acid aerosol. The neutralization of acid by ammonia can only be controlled by the use of head-only exposure systems (Schlesinger et al., 1983), which are tedious for repetitive exposures for large numbers of rodents, or by complete elimination of ammonia as it is formed during the whole-body exposure. This latter approach appears to be most appropriate; therefore, the development of a small animal whole-body ammonia reduction system (SAWBARS) for inhalation exposures was desirable for long-term rodent exposure studies.The removal of ammonia was accomplished by designing and fabricating stainless steel excreta pan manifolds to exhaust ammonia from the pans as it was generated. These manifolds were situated between neomycin-treated paper lining the excreta pans and a stainless steel screen that ...