Animal Model Research

Richardson Centre for Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals Pre-Clinical Animal Facilites - State of the Art & Price Competitive!

Basic research using animals is vital to furthering our understanding of the impact of functional foods and nutraceuticals on health promotion and disease management. A variety of small animals in special care housing exists for clinical evaluation of bio-actives used for functional food and nutraceutical efficacy / metabolic evaluation. The facility provides expertise, advice, animal housing and surgery personnel, as well as training and assistance, for food and nutraceutical related research that incorporates animal models. Pre-clinical trials can be conducted utilizing either immune competent or immunocompromised animals.

In addition to being a regulatory prerequisite for human clinical trials, clinical trials utilizing animals may lead to ground-breaking research for functional food or nutraceutical products or formulations for companion animals.

The 6,500 square foot facility is situated on the ground floor of the Centre. The facility can house rodents, rabbits, guinea pigs, and piglets. The animal facility consists of 6 animal holding rooms, an investigator-dedicated lab, a veterinary diagnostic area, two procedure rooms, and a surgery / necropsy room. There are cage washing, autoclave, feed and sample, bedding, waste and supply storage areas as well as dedicated administrative, staff lounge, and locker facilities. The facility is secured by card access.

A wide variety of housing options are available for conventional laboratory animals. Each animal caging room is a full barrier suite capable of housing multiple Ventilated Caging Units (VCUs). The animal facility includes holding rooms containing VCUs, a Biological Safety Cabinet (BSC), a Laminar Flow animal transfer station and HEPA filtered dump station to ensure separation of research manipulations using microisolator techniques from those performed for routine animal husbandry. To ensure the maintenance of the pathogen-free barrier, there is also one quarantine suite.
An auto-watering system, utilizing reverse-osmosis followed by uv sterilization for purification, is installed and water is provided ad libitum. State-of-the art food formulation and pelleting equipment is utilized for ration formulation. All routine feed is consistent with industry standards for the intended species. Immunocompromised animals can receive gamma-irradiated feedstocks. There is a dedicated temperature-controlled feed storage area, with a refrigeration unit for specialty diet storage to avoid loss of nutritional value.

The care and use of animals in research, teaching, or testing at the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals is carried out in accordance with Canadian federal and Manitoba provincial legislation and regulation. In addition, the Center adheres to the standards of the Canadian Association of Laboratory Animal Medicine and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.

All animal activities at the Centre meet or exceed the guidelines and standards set forth by the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC). The CCAC is the federal organization responsible for setting and maintaining standards for the care and use of animals in research, teaching and testing throughout Canada. The Province of Manitoba’s Animal Care Act, which also regulates the Centre, reinforces these CCAC guidelines as appropriate in its regulations.

As part of the University of Manitoba, the animal-based activity at the Centre is also overseen by the University of Manitoba Senate Committee on Animal Care. This committee is responsible to recommend policy for the entire University, and ensures that all committees concerned with the care and use of animals are functioning effectively and that all animal facilities are inspected.

Representatives of the Canadian Council on Animal Care make regularly scheduled detailed assessments of animal care and use, which include an inspection of animal laboratory service and housing facilities as well as evaluation of policy development and review mechanisms, and methods of protocol management and review.

The animal facilities are also inspected annually by the animal Protocol Management and Review Committee (PMRC). Additionally, the University of Manitoba veterinarians make regular rounds of inspection. The university veterinarians monitor all animal care and use and are responsible for ensuring adequate veterinary / health care is available, that animal welfare receives top priority and is consistent with CCAC guidelines. University of Manitoba veterinarians have been delegated authority to terminate any procedure or animal use which, in their opinion, causes deleterious effects which were not anticipated at the time the protocol was approved, and euthanizing any animal which is in pain, distress or ill beyond that which can be alleviated by medical intervention.

Each study or intervention protocol involving the use of animals must be reviewed and approved by the Protocol Management and Review Committee (PMRC). Approval is granted only after the proposed animal care and use has been carefully examined. The PMRC ensures that the study is ethical and the animals are humanely and responsibly treated; the appropriate species of animal is being used; the principles of reduction, replacement, and refinement (3-RS) are applied and the minimum number of animals are being used; and the potential benefits of the proposal are sufficient to warrant the use of animals.

Together, the facility, researchers, oversight committees, guidelines, and regulations function to ensure that the very highest standards of animal care are utilized in animal-based research teaching, or testing. The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals is committed to maintaining our very high standards of animal care.