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Donald G. McKay, Director, Biosciences Animal Service, University of Alberta and David H. Neil, Past University Veterinarian, University of Colorado and University of Alberta, consultants on animal facility design will be featured speakers at the Turnkey Conference, April 17-18, 2008 in Baltimore, MD.
Drs. David Neil and Donald McKay developed the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) Guidelines on: Laboratory Animal Facilities – characteristics, design and development (2003) in collaboration with the CCAC Facilities Standard Subcommittee. Although these guidelines and the wealth of other information on laboratory animal facility design, such as the ALN magazine, have lead to significant improvements, many new facilities still do not meet current standards or expectations.
We believe this often occurs because of the failure to follow and/or understand “The Process for the Planning, Design and Development of a Laboratory Animal Facility” as outlined in Section D of the CCAC Guidelines. For example, the development of a comprehensive program is one of the most important stages in planning an animal facility however it is often poorly done or skipped altogether. The program forms the basis of instructions and guidelines for the architect(s) and engineer(s) to develop detailed designs and should be based on clearly defined needs. If those needs are not well understood or biased by one member or group of the team than the program will not reflect overall needs and deficiencies will be carried forward to the end product. For example, there is often competition between the research group and the animal husbandry group for limited resources. If their needs are not properly balanced the resulting facility may have adequate research space but inadequate cage cleaning and storage space or vice versa. Skipping the program and going straight to the design phase usually results in a facility that does not meet current or future needs because of the lack of input from many potential users and maintenance personnel. Do it right! Establish a good working team. Do your homework and produce a well balanced, comprehensive program as the basis for your new laboratory animal facility.
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