News

Construction of laboratory animal facilities

Release time:

2025-12-30 10:52

Laboratory animal facilities are buildings suitable for raising and breeding laboratory animals. Compared to other types of laboratory environments, laboratory animal facilities have stricter requirements for environmental stability, comfort, and reliability to ensure animal quality and the accuracy and reliability of experimental research.

Microbiological control standards for laboratory animals classify them into four levels:

Level 1 – Common Animals (CV):  This refers to ordinary animals whose microorganisms are not subject to special control. It requires the exclusion of pathogens that cause zoonotic diseases in humans and the very few pathogens of highly contagious diseases in laboratory animals.

Level 2 – Clean Animals (CL): It is required to exclude pathogens that cause zoonotic diseases in humans and major infectious diseases in animals;

Level 3 – Specific Pathogen Free (SPF): In addition to requiring a level 2 diagnosis, certain specified pathogens must also be excluded;

Level 4 – Germ-free animals (GF) or habitat animals (GN): Germ-free animals are required to be free of any microorganisms that can be detected by existing methods. Peripheral animals are required to have one or more known microorganisms implanted in their bodies.

 

 

     Laboratory animal facilities typically consist of housing rooms, health observation rooms, isolation and quarantine rooms, various laboratories (for surgery, experimental processing and dissection, postoperative management, disease diagnosis, treatment, physiological and biochemical examinations, microbiological quarantine, feed nutrition analysis, and special feed preparation), as well as storage rooms, cleaning and preparation rooms, washing and disinfection rooms, staff rooms (including offices, shower rooms, changing rooms, etc.), corridors (clean and contaminated areas), waste disposal facilities, machine rooms, and substations. The layout of the laboratory animal facility should ensure a rational flow of people, animals, and materials, facilitating operations. Strict separation of barrier and containment areas is essential; specially designed sterilization, disinfection, and protection procedures must be implemented for these areas to guarantee the health of both people and animals and ensure the accuracy of experiments.



     The building materials and surface coatings used in the interior spaces of laboratory animal facilities must typically meet the requirements of a bioreliable Class 2 building standard. The building materials used for the main interior walls must consider the various needs of the animals and the requirements for cleanliness and hygiene. The interior wall materials must be smooth, durable, corrosion-resistant, fireproof, and moisture-proof, and will not easily break, crack, or rust. The floor must be flat but not slippery, waterproof, leak-proof, resistant to chemical corrosion, and wear-resistant.

 


     Laboratory animal facilities typically consist of housing rooms, health observation rooms, isolation and quarantine rooms, various laboratories (for surgery, experimental processing and dissection, postoperative management, disease diagnosis, treatment, physiological and biochemical examinations, microbiological quarantine, feed nutrition analysis, and special feed preparation), as well as storage rooms, cleaning and preparation rooms, washing and disinfection rooms, staff rooms (including offices, shower rooms, changing rooms, etc.), corridors (clean and contaminated areas), waste disposal facilities, machine rooms, and substations. The layout of the laboratory animal facility should ensure a rational flow of people, animals, and materials, facilitating operations. Strict separation of barrier and containment areas is essential; specially designed sterilization, disinfection, and protection procedures must be implemented for these areas to guarantee the health of both people and animals and ensure the accuracy of experiments.

     The building materials and surface coatings used in the interior spaces of laboratory animal facilities must generally meet the requirements of a bioreliable Class 2 building standard. The building materials used for the main interior walls must consider the various needs of the animals and the requirements for cleanliness and hygiene. Interior wall materials should be smooth, durable, corrosion-resistant, fireproof, and moisture-proof, and should not easily break, crack, or rust. Floors should be flat but not slippery, waterproof, leak-proof, resistant to chemical corrosion, and wear-resistant. For rooms with strict environmental requirements, materials with low dust generation should be considered. Wall-floor intersections should be rounded without sharp edges. Angles between walls, and between walls and ceilings or beams, should also be rounded without sharp edges. Ceilings generally do not bear pressure and should use thin cement boards coated with waterproof materials that can withstand water erosion and disinfectant corrosion. Feeding rooms typically do not have external windows, and there are no internal windows between feeding rooms to avoid interference. Feeding room doors should preferably be aluminum alloy sealed doors, and the opening direction should take into account the pressure difference between the inside and outside. Doors between barriers and non-barrier areas should be equipped with devices that prevent opening under certain conditions.


     In animal laboratories, pressure zones are used to control the pathways of air pollutants and allergens. Generally, barrier zones are maintained at positive pressure, while containment zones are maintained at a relatively negative pressure. The pressure difference varies between different facilities, such as animal housing and corridors, but in most cases, a pressure range of 0.03 to 0.075 inches of water column is used, and an alarm is triggered when the pressure difference is too low.
     In terms of temperature and relative humidity control, laboratory animal facilities also require a stable ventilation control system to maintain correct environmental parameters. Temperature requirements are critical, needing to be controlled within ±1°C of the setpoint, which is between 16-29°C. The air conditioning system must operate year-round; otherwise, disastrous consequences will ensue. Therefore, a backup air conditioning unit is essential. In most cases, the target relative humidity is between 30% and 70%, with a setpoint of 50%-55%. For some non-primary rooms, a multi-room system can be used to control a single area to save costs.

recommend News