Animal housing systems

• Main Authors: TIMOTHY PAUL COLES, HAZEL ELISABETH JOHNSON, JEREMY ANDREW TOMBS, CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL WATHES
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 21.11.1990
• Subjects: AGRICULTURE; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; CARE OF BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS; FISHING; FORESTRY; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HUNTING; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TRAPPING

Research animals are commonly housed in purpose-built cage systems, and for smaller laboratory animals it is usual to employ a plurality of plastic cages mounted as an array in rows and columns within a frame from which the individual cages are removable for servicing, the whole being a rack housing system. Maintaining constant between-cage environmental conditions may be a problem, as may be preventing disease spreading from one cage to the next. Furthermore, people responsible for the care of the animals frequently become sensitized to either the animals themselves or dust from their bedding. The invention proposes a rack housing system which should overcome these difficulties, in which system each cage (12) is connected up to an atmosphere supply/ withdrawal arrangement (28, 30, 32, 34) - an airflow system - in which the atmosphere required by the cages' inhabitants is provided in a controlled fashion through each individual cage via filters, and wherein in order to avoid a profileration of long pipes snaking all over, there is provided a relatively large plenum chamber (22) through which the cage atmosphere is passed, each cage in the array then being individually connected - plugged into - the chamber by a short pipe (18). In a preferred form the rack of cages is actually wholly contained within an isolator, with the plenum chamber at the rear thereof.