All animal experiments were performed according to approved Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocols at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC), conforming to relevant federal guidelines. The UMKC animal facility is operated as a specific pathogen free, AAALAC accredited, PHS assured facility. Animal care and husbandry meets the requirements in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (8th edition), National Research Council. Animals are group housed and maintained on a 12 hour light/dark cycle with ad libitum food and water at a constant temperature of 70-72o F and humidity of 30-70%. Daily health check inspections are performed by qualified veterinary staff and/or animal care technicians.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is one of the four institutions that comprise the University of Missouri System. UMKC includes the following academic units related to animal research:
School of Biological Sciences
School of Dentistry
School of Graduate Studies
School of Medicine
School of Nursing
School of Pharmacy
The Laboratory Animal Research Core (LARC) is the resource for animal care and use for the UMKC program and operates a single vivarium of 11907 sq. ft. located in the Health Science Building (HSB) on the Hospital Hill Campus. The LARC facility is accessed via two secure entry points served from a public corridor running along the north side. One of these entries is through the animal care office and the other passes through the loading dock. The loading dock entry is visually monitored through a window in the animal care office. The entry through the animal care office passes by the shower and locker room facilities. Once inside the vivarium, the layout consists of a conventional system of corridors arranged around a central clean and dirty cage washing suite. The facility consists of rodent housing rooms, and procedure space in addition to a transition room for housing animals that leave and return to the facility and a separate quarantine area for incoming non-vendor animals. There is a barrier suite located on the west side of the facility that is accessed through a personnel air lock and a pass through sterilizer. This barrier suite includes a staging area, two animal holding rooms and a shared procedure room. The LARC has a swipe card access only into the facility and each individual animal room has code ID access. Additionally the LARC is equipped with security cameras at both air-lock entries. The LARC has maintained continued AAALAC accredited since 1979.