Share thisALN World asked research practitioners and vivarium design professionals about the future of vivarium design. Here are their answers.
The vivarium of the future will be designed with an eye toward environments that serve its occupants rather than the other way around. – Steven W. Darr, PE and James Petitto, RA, architects at HLW
Today the bright lights of public scrutiny illuminate dilemmas once discussed privately by biomedical research professionals. This lack of privacy has, on balance, advanced the cause of animal welfare and also forced attention to thorny issues practitioners might have wished to address in their own time. Nevertheless, the case is now made linking animal well-being to the quality of scientific data, and that has changed the game for all players.
To understand the impact of life on the global stage, we asked a number of research practitioners and vivarium design professionals about emerging issues in research, housing, and vivarium design.
Those with whom we spoke—architects, facility managers, animal welfare professionals, and biomedical engineers—reported the following as compelling issues. These issues are in addition to the ongoing issues of animal welfare, security, biosafety, ergonomics, sustainability, lighting, automation, and ventilation. We list them in alphabetical order rather than according to judgment on their importance.
ACCESS TO DAYLIGHT
Although animal care staff have access to daylight during breaks, most of their work is in artificial light. In many places turnover is high and therefore extremely costly. So it isn’t surprising that architects report requests for transom windows and animal rooms with skylights, where the walls are secure and the source of daylight is less accessible. This is very much a matter of concern to professionals directly and indirectly associated with biomedical research.
The animal welfare issues surrounding access to daylight vs. introducing the variables associated with seasonal changes are well known and considered an important unresolved issue. “The trend in Europe is to give primates and dogs access to daylight”, Jann Hau, Professor of Comparative Medicine and Chair, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Copenhagen in Denmark told us. “If we exposed rodents to natural photo periods, you would introduce a great deal of seasonal variation resulting in larger group sizes, and perhaps a need to repeat, at least certain, experiments at different seasons if you work at high latitudes as we do in our part of the world. The trade-off is to use the best light equipment you can afford, keep numbers small, and make sure the animals are happy”.
