Breeding Services

LARC now offers a breeding service program. The service allows investigators to place orders for mice they will need for their study. LARC will breed the mice and deliver them when they are needed as requested by the investigator.

The breeding services provided by LARC take place in a Breeding Core Facility. Animals may not enter the facility unless they are rederived from an existing colony or are shipped directly to the barrier from an approved vendor. The goal of the Laboratory Animal Resource Center is to provide breeding services to support research projects in maintaining a sterile and organized mouse colony.

To that end, laboratory staff does not have access to the barrier rooms where their animals are being bred. All breeding, weaning, animal identification, colony management, record keeping, tissue and sample collection is performed by experienced LARC technicians. To reduce any threat of biocontamination, only LARC technicians and supervisors are allowed access to barrier housing rooms. All breeding services are provided on a recharge basis.

LARC can provide the following mouse breeding services:

• Set up mating pairs
• Maintenance of the breeding database
• Timed matings
• Copulation plug checks
• Weaning
• Tail snip collection for PCR
• Blood collection
• Animal identification
• Antibiotic water administration
• IP or SQ injections
• Litter weight at weaning
• Provide special diet if needed (must be irradiated)
• Rederivation of cryopreserved or existing lines

All mice in the barrier are housed in ventilated microisolator cages. All caging equipment is autoclaved and all feed is irradiated or autoclaved. Water is purified through reverse osmosis and acidification. Special diets and/or water treatment can be provided per investigator request (all diets must be irradiated).

LARC maintains breeding records using breeding colony management software which tracks stock/strain/line and heritage. This information is available to investigators online. Investigators may request breeding scheme strategy adjustments at any time by e-mailing or faxing (415-476-4714) requests to the Breeding Core Manager. Completed orders will be delivered directly to the investigator’s regular animal holding room.

Tail snip samples are collected by LARC technicians, as requested by the investigator, for genotype testing. Genotyping can either be performed by the requesting laboratory or sent to an outside laboratory for a rechargeable fee. Other tissue samples can be collected as requested by the investigator (mucosal swab or blood for example).

Individual animals are permanently identified by tattoo (other methods available on request). Pups are weaned at 21 days of age, unless extended weaning is necessary to enhance survival rates. Animal weight at weaning can be measured and recorded if requested. If requested by the investigator, culling by gender or genotype can be provided to meet the needs of individual studies.

LARC participates in the transgenic mouse core facility to rederive mouse strains by embryo transfer. The core provides transgenic mouse production per your construct as well as mouse rederivation services. Rederivation is the most secure means for moving mouse strains from conventional facilities to specific pathogen-free facilities or as a solution to address disease outbreaks.

Investigators interested in making use of breeding or rederivation services should log in to RIO via the link below. For questions regarding rederivation contact Nigel Killeen.