UEL received R$1.8 million to improve the structure of the central animal facility

This month, UEL received a total of R$1.8 million for renovation works, equipment acquisitions and grant funding to improve the infrastructure of the hangar system. Resources will be used to improve the building Central basinlocated in the Center for Biological Sciences (China Construction Bank), on campus, and to purchase and install ventilated racks, inhalation anesthesia machines, and tabletop autoclaves, in order to improve animal care. The investment will also be used to install animal testing laboratories with NB2 biosafety level, a requirement for activities using biological agents.

The investment was officially announced by the Secretariat of Higher Education, Science and Technology (City), at the beginning of this month, in the Official State Gazette, taking into account the guidelines of the Paraná Council for Science and Technology (CCT) To develop research projects and procedures. The last renovation carried out at the CCB Central Animal Facility was in 2014, when the current 350 square meter structure was delivered.

According to prof Department of Pathological Sciences From CCB, Valdicio Ferri Jr., Coordinator of the Central Animal Facility, the resources will be used to improve research infrastructure and active research-based teaching. The funds will cover the payment of scholarships for two professionals who will work in the maintenance and treatment of animals serving the CCB Central Animal Facility as well as the Health Sciences Center Unit (Carbon dioxide capture).

He explains that the modernization includes the acquisition of ventilated shelving systems for rats and mice, allowing the animals to be kept in boxes with individually filtered air for each box. According to the professor, this system significantly reduces, for example, viral infections and their spread in colonies. In this way, the equipment will improve the health quality of the animals.

Inhaler anesthesia and autoclave machines will also be purchased. The goal is to improve the anesthesia process using the latest equipment. Another point that will be improved is adapting two laboratories for animal experiments to the biosafety level NB2. “This procedure is essential for us to develop in animal models of infection,” the professor highlights.

Another important aspect is that the investment will make it possible to expand rodent (mainly mice) breeds. Production is based on the Swiss strain, and from now on, according to the professor, the system will undergo a transition to the production of strains designated as C57BL/6 and Balb/C. According to the professor, these breeds have a lower production per litter and require a more controlled environment for better production.

The UEL vivarium system serves at least nine undergraduate courses – medicine, veterinary medicine, biomedicine, biological sciences, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, dentistry and animal technology. The center also offers Lato courses (Physiological Sciences, Tissue Biology). As well as courses in the narrow sense – graduate program in physiological sciences, experimental pathology, behavior analysis, health sciences, animal health, food sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, physical education, biotechnology, chemistry, microbiology. Furthermore, animals produced by the central basin of the UEL are used for diagnosis when there is a need to evaluate a toxoplasmosis outbreak.