Cornell Animal Program Descriptions for Mouse Veterinary Care and Facilities
(If further information is needed contact CARE at 607 253 4378 or care@cornell.edu)
Animal Facilities:
General - Cornell University is one of the largest AAALAC accredited institutions in the nation.
All animal facilities at Cornell are AAALAC accredited. Cornell’s Center for Animal Resources and
Education (CARE) has oversight responsibility for all animal use and housing facilities. Facilities
exist for a variety of animal use purposes including: maintenance of genetically defined animal
colonies, specific pathogen-free (SPF) subjects and ABSL-2 and ABSL-3 projects.
In addition to various agricultural and non-barrier facilities, Cornell has three main mouse
barrier facilities located on campus, including the Transgenic Mouse Core Facility, the East
Campus Research Facility and the Weill Hall Vivarium. Typically, mice are housed in
microisolator systems. All mouse facilities are equipped with modern rack washers, autoclaves,
surgical suites, and general procedure areas. All mice admitted to Cornell’s animal housing
facilities must either come directly from an approved SPF vendor or pass through quarantine
screening for specific pathogens. In addition to the rodent facilities, a number of specialized
animal facilities are located throughout the Cornell animal use program to accommodate
specific animal models and research projects.
ECRF - The East Campus Research Facility (ECRF) is an animal vivarium (opened 2007), which is
an 80,000 square foot, four-story building (three floors for animal housing and one floor for
mechanical equipment) adjacent to existing research buildings in the College of Veterinary
Medicine's complex. This facility includes animal rooms under exclusion barrier and
conventional conditions, a rodent quarantine, teaching and procedure rooms, a surgery suite, a
large efficient cage wash area, two large walk-in autoclave units, and an Animal Biosafety Level
3 suite with the capacity for work with select agents. This facility provides space for the housing
of over 45,000 mice and many other laboratory animal species. Most of the rodents housed in
this facility are housed in individually ventilated caging (IVC) systems.
TMCF – The Transgenic Mouse Core Facility is located in the Veterinary Medical Center (VMC)
at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). The facility has approximately 4,807 net sq. ft. of
animal care and use space and 8,149 net sq. ft. of support space adjacent to numerous research
laboratories. The TMCF is an exclusion barrier facility for specific pathogen-free and accepted
pathogen mice, which also contains imaging resources, a large efficient cage wash area, an
autoclave unit and a rederivation unit. All rodents in this facility are housed in individually
ventilated caging (IVC) systems.
Weill - Weill Hall Vivarium is 18,000 net square feet which represent the animal holding rooms,
procedural areas, support areas, a surgery suite, cage wash, and walk-in autoclave. This
vivarium opened in February 2009 and is adjacent to lab space, imaging resources and other
animal facilities in central campus. The vivarium itself includes animal rooms under exclusion
barrier, specific pathogen-free and accepted pathogen barrier housing, and conventional
conditions. This facility provides space for the housing of mice and rats. Most of the rodents
housed in this facility are housed in individually ventilated caging (IVC) systems.
Veterinary Care:
Animal care personnel observe each animal daily for signs of illness, abnormal behavior or
injury. It is the responsibility of the manager of each animal facility to ensure all animal care
personnel have undergone appropriate training to recognize sick animals. Veterinary staff from
Cornell’s Center for Animal Resources and Education (CARE) may provide additional training if
requested by the manager, animal care staff or principal investigator (PI). In a lab animal
housing facility, if an ill or injured animal is found, the animal care staff will fill out a standard
health report form and inform CARE veterinary staff by phone or paging system. Once an
animal has been examined by CARE’s veterinary staff the PI &/or PI staff are contacted to
coordinate appropriate care. Via the paging system and/or direct phone contact, CARE
veterinary staff are available at all hours, including weekends and holidays.