Animal Facility

IDIBELL Animal facility provides support to researchers who need to use laboratory animals (mice, hamsters and Zebrafish) in their research lines. The Animal facility occupies about 800 m2 and is divided into two units: one to house mice and hamsters, located on the third floor and one to house zebrafish, located on the ground floor.

The animal facility is included in the registry of user centers of the Generalitat (B-9900010), is authorized by the Ministry to house and work with GMOs up to a Biosafety level II (GMO A / ES / 05 / I-14 and GMO A / ES / I-15) and is accredited by AAALAC (Unit 1155).

Researchers working in the facility must have a project approved by the IDIBELL CEEA and by the CEA of the Generalitat, in compliance with current national and European legislation (CEE / 86/609, RD1201 / 2005, RD214 / 1997).

IDIBELL has acceded to the "Transparency Agreement on Animal Experimentation" promoted by COSCE (https://cosce.org/) and EARA (https://www.eara.eu/espana).

Services

Colony management (crossing, weaning, sexing, obtaining samples for genotyping)
Mouse lines rederivation by neonatal transfer or by cesarean.
Drug administration
Blood samples extraction
Support in anesthesia, surgical procedures and euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia and samples obtention
Samples obtention for analytics
Experimental procedures supervision
Technical support and advice on mice related issues
Mice import and export
Support and advice in the drafting of projects that include laboratory animal work for its presentation to the Generalitat.

In IDIBELL Intranet you can find the “Animal Facility User’s Guide” that includes minimal essential information that all users must know regarding the functioning, regulations and use of the facility, as well as the SOPs, forms and documents that complement it.

Equipment

The Mouse Unit occupies an area of 800 m2 and is prepared for researchers to work under SFP (Specific Patogen Free) conditions, following FELASA recommendations. The facility houses in cages in ventilated racks all types of mouse strains, both immunocompetent and immunosuppressed, genetically modified or not. In this type of housing, each cage works as a micro-isolator and therefore guarantees regulated and constant environmental conditions and prevents mice contamination by pathogens.

In addition to the ventilated racks, in the rooms where mice are housed, everything is prepared for working and storing material under SPF conditions: there are laminar flow cabinets, anesthesia equipment, scales, tables and stainless steel drawers, etc. All the material in the rooms, including the mouse food and water, has been sterilized, either irradiated or autoclaved.

The space to work in the animal facility includes 12 rooms for mice housing, two quarantine rooms, a Gene Therapy room (to work under Biosafety level II), a necropsy room and an imaging room equipped with an IVIS Lumina in self-service system. In addition, there is a large washing area with two autoclaves, cage and bottle washers, storage space for material and consumables and an administration area.

The Zebrafish Unit occupies an area of 66 m2, which is distributed between the racks room, the laboratory, the washing area and external office at the entrance of the unit. In the racks room there are 8 aquatic racks for housing and quarantine that can accommodate zebrafish buckets of different capacities, and the laboratory is equipped with everything necessary to work with zebrafish.
In the washing area there is an osmosis equipment that guarantees a constant supply of water with a stable and suitable composition for zebrafish maintenance.

IDIBELL has renovated its animal facility with cutting edge technology and sophisticated security measures promoting excellence in research. Discover the wide range of services that we offer!