JP2857340B2 - Laboratory animal breeding container, breeding device and breeding system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laboratory animal breeding container, a breeding apparatus, and a breeding system which are configured to prevent infection between animals or between animals and humans and keep the room clean.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, small experimental animals such as mice and rats are generally housed in transparent resin open cages.
It is bred in a state where it is stored in a breeding shelf consisting of a plurality of stages. In such a breeding environment, foul odors such as manure excreted from experimental animals diffuse into the room, and although strong ventilation is performed at about 15 times / hr with all freshness, the odor remains in the room. In addition, there is also a problem that illness infection between experimental animals or between experimental animals and humans is likely to occur. Furthermore, since it is necessary to ventilate the entire room, exhaust of a large air volume must be continuously performed 24 hours a year, and the cost for ventilation in the animal breeding facility is enormous.

As one of measures against such a problem, there is a method of using a breeding shelf provided with a ventilation system called safety black, negative black, or the like. According to this method, small laboratory animals such as rats and mice are housed in an open cage with a bedding and stored in the breeding rack, and the air inside the breeding rack is forcibly exhausted to the outside. . According to this method, although it is effective to prevent bad smell and disease infection, it is necessary to continuously exhaust a large air volume so that the contaminated air does not flow backward from the breeding shelf to the room, so energy saving is expected. It is not possible.

As another measure, there is an experimental animal breeding apparatus called an isolation box as shown in FIG. 5, which is mainly used for breeding infected animals. In this device, after a small experimental animal is housed in an open cage 40, it is housed in an airtight capsule 42 with a door 41, and the air in this capsule is forcibly exhausted outside. In the drawing, reference numeral 43 denotes an air filter, and 44 denotes an exhaust pipe connection joint. Even in this system, it is unavoidable that the structure is much bulkier and heavier than the open cage due to its structure. Therefore,
It is not easy to remove capsules for care of laboratory animals and for autoclaving the equipment. If the doors are opened and the floor mats are changed daily, for example, while the capsules are fixed, the room, which should be clean, is naturally contaminated. Further, the number of animals accommodated per room area is smaller than that of the open rack system. Further, there is a drawback in that equipment costs are expensive because special shelves and equipment are required. It should be noted that the replacement of the bedding differs depending on the breeding conditions, but it is usually necessary to perform it every three days, at most every five days. Therefore, the replacement of the bedding is complicated.
For example, steam sterilization and the like are required, so that the burden on the operator is enormous.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is possible to significantly reduce the spread of illness and the spread of bad smells in a room while reducing the structure of the apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a laboratory animal breeding container, a breeding apparatus, and a breeding system that can be simplified and reduce equipment and maintenance costs required for ventilation.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laboratory animal breeding container comprising a container body and a lid, wherein the lid has a suction portion having a wide opening and an exhaust portion having a wide opening. A sheet-shaped or pleated filter is mounted on the exhaust portion, and an exhaust portion cover is provided on the lid portion so as to cover a gap leaving a space on the filter exit side,
This is an experimental animal breeding container in which an exhaust port is formed in the exhaust unit cover, and an exhaust thin tube is connected to the exhaust port.

[0007] In the above experimental animal breeding container, it is preferable that the evacuation tubule has an inner diameter of 12 mm or less and a length of at least 10 times the inner diameter. Further, it is preferable that a sheet-shaped or pleated filter is mounted on the intake section. Furthermore, it is preferable that the ratio of the opening area of the intake section to the opening area of the exhaust section is between 1: 1 and 2: 1.

[0008] The present invention provides an experiment comprising a plurality of the above experimental animal breeding vessels, and an exhaust collecting pipe branched and connected to the exhaust tubing of each breeding vessel to collect air discharged from the exhaust tubing. It is an animal breeding device. In the above experimental animal breeding apparatus, it is preferable that a deodorizing catalyst for deodorizing the exhaust air is provided downstream of the exhaust collecting pipe.

According to the present invention, a breeding container is provided by sucking air from the above-described experimental animal breeding apparatus through a narrow pipe for exhaust and an exhaust collecting pipe connected to the outlet side of the exhaust collecting pipe through a gap in the exhaust cover. And a suction means for sucking contaminated air in a state of laminar flow through a filter.

In the present invention, as in the case of using a clean rack, a safety rack, etc., ventilation of an extra space other than the breeding container becomes unnecessary, and only the inside of the breeding container can be directly and optimally ventilated. Therefore, the displacement per animal can be significantly reduced. That is, the air taken in from the intake section becomes laminar due to the large area filter attached to the intake section,
The air flows down to the bottom of the breeding vessel as a slow airflow that is comfortable for the laboratory animal, and the floor is dried, and rises with moisture, passes through the filter attached to the exhaust, and is used for exhaust. It is discharged into a thin tube (tube). The air flowing in the breeding container always moves in a laminar flow state.

As described above, the ventilation of the breeding container with the laminar flow results in efficient drying of the bedding with a small air volume. This has the effect of delaying the generation of ammonia due to the decomposition of urea in the manure excreted from experimental animals, thereby significantly extending the period of bed replacement. This not only saves floor coverings, but also greatly reduces the number of man-hours required for workers.

In the present invention, if the breeding container is opened and closed in the safety cabinet as well as during daily operation, there is no risk of odors and substances harmful to the human body leaking into the room. Therefore, the number of times of ventilation in the room can be reduced to the utmost limit within a range where the temperature and humidity difference in various places in the room is allowed, and a great energy saving effect is brought. At the same time, the amount of exhaust air to be deodorized can be greatly reduced to 1/5 to 1/10 as compared with the open breeding method.

The filters provided in the intake section and the exhaust section play a role of preventing indoor contamination when the breeding container is moved to a safety cabinet or the like by removing the exhaust pipe. Further, the exhaust tubing used in the present invention is:
The inner diameter of the part connected to the breeding container is 12 mm or less,
It is preferable to use a tube whose length is at least 10 times the inner diameter. By using such exhaust tubing,
When the pressure in the exhaust manifold for collecting a number of exhaust narrow tubes is 10
When operated at a normal air-conditioning pressure of ５０50 mmAq, the exhaust air volume from all breeding vessels can be adjusted almost equally, and some exhaust tubules are left out of the breeding vessel. Even in this case, the effect on other breeding containers can be minimized. That is,
Since there is little leakage from the exhaust tubule, it functions to reduce a decrease in ventilation performance in other breeding containers.

[0014]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following Examples, which do not limit the present invention.
Modifications and alterations that do not depart from the gist of the preceding and following descriptions are all included in the technical scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a laboratory animal breeding container (hereinafter simply referred to as a breeding container) of the present invention. The breeding container A of this embodiment is composed of a container body and a lid, and has a suction portion having a wide-opening and an exhaust portion having a wide-opening in the lid, and a sheet-like or pleated shape in the exhaust portion. The filter is covered, and the cover is provided with an exhaust portion cover so as to cover the air gap leaving a space on the filter outlet side, the exhaust portion cover is formed with an exhaust port, and the exhaust thin tube is connected to the exhaust port. Is what is being done.

Hereinafter, the configuration of each part will be described in detail.
In FIG. 1, a breeding container A is composed of a conventional transparent resin cage 1 used for breeding small test animals, a wire mesh 2 mounted in the cage 1 and also serving as a solid feed and a water bottle, and a cage 1. Lid 4 with packing 3 to keep airtight
It is composed of On the top surface of the lid 4, an intake unit 5 is provided.
And the exhaust part 6 are formed with the partition plate 7 as a boundary. Specifically, the opening area of the intake section 5 and the opening area of the exhaust section 6 are open at a ratio of 2: 1.

The intake section 5 is provided with a sheet-shaped intake section filter 8 so as to cover the intake section 5.
More specifically, the intake unit filter 8 inserted from above is engaged with the peripheral edge of the intake unit 5 and fixed by the filter retainer 9. The exhaust part 6 is provided with an exhaust part filter 10. The exhaust part filter 10 is inserted from below and fixed by a filter retainer 11.

Exhaust unit cover 1 provided on the exhaust unit 6
2 is an air gap 12a between the upper surface of the exhaust filter 10
Are formed. A connection port 13 is formed in the top surface of the exhaust unit cover 12.
Is connected to a thin exhaust tube 14 made of a soft resin tube. When the breeding container A is used for an infection experiment or the like, a tube joint 15 is attached to the outlet of the connection port 13 (see FIG. 2).

The exhaust pipe 14 has an outer diameter of 6 to 10.
It is 10 mm in diameter and is connected to a large-diameter collecting exhaust pipe 17 via another tube joint 16. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the exhaust tubes 14 of a large number of the breeding containers A.
Are connected to the collective exhaust pipe 17 and constitute the experimental animal breeding apparatus B. Note that the exhaust tubing 14
It is sufficient that the inner diameter is 12 mm or less, and the length is 10 times or more the inner diameter. The exhaust air from each breeding container A is collected by the collective exhaust pipe 17 and exhausted outside.

In the experimental animal breeding apparatus B configured as described above, an ultra-high-performance filter 17a is provided at the outlet of the collective exhaust pipe 17 when applied to an infection experiment or the like. Is connected to a blower 18 as suction means, and the outlet of the blower 18 is connected to an ozonolysis / deodorization catalyst 19, thereby constituting an experimental animal breeding system as a whole. The above deodorizing catalyst 1
As for 9, for example, a catalyst disclosed in JP-A-62-132546 can be used. The ultra-high-performance filter 17a is an air filter manufactured by Toyo Roshi Kaisha, Ltd.
Pleated AF-1010 can be used. Then, when the blower as a suction means starts a suction operation, air is sucked from the gap 12a in the exhaust unit cover 12 to the exhaust thin tube 14, whereby the air in the breeding container A flows through the filter 10 in a laminar flow. In this state, it is sucked into the exhaust part 6 side.

In the experimental animal breeding system configured as described above, the air that has flowed into the breeding container A after passing through the filter 8 for the inhalation part flows down right below, flows horizontally in the lower part of the cage 1, and turns in the direction. The air flows upward and becomes an ascending airflow, passes through the exhaust filter 10, and is sucked and discharged from the exhaust narrow tube 14. In such ventilation, since the exhaust thin tube 14 is formed of a thin tube, the air in the breeding container A is not locally sucked, and the planar exhaust filter 1 is formed.
Since the air is sucked through the gap 0, the inside of the gap 12a has a negative pressure, and the upward airflow is slowly discharged in a laminar state.
Therefore, the air in the breeding container A can be circulated to the lower part of the breeding container A without short-circuiting and circulating locally in the upper part of the breeding container.

It is desirable that the two filters provided on the intake side and the exhaust side have a sufficient area so that the airflow in the breeding container A becomes laminar. Filter type is HEP
A, high-performance, medium-performance, and coarse dust can be selected as needed, but if HEPA and high-performance filters are used, air supplied to the room can be used in general air-conditioned rooms that have not been purified. Also, the experimental animal breeding apparatus of this embodiment can be installed.

The lid of the breeding container A may be one that is simply placed on the cage 1, but it may be tightly fixed to the main body, for example, a patch-in tablet, etc., depending on the degree of danger of the experiment, so that airtightness is obtained. Anything that can be surely used can be used. The breeding containers A can be used by being stored in multiple stages in a normal open breeding shelf 20 as shown in the front view of FIG. 3A and the side view of FIG. This shelf 20 does not need to use a specially manufactured one, and an existing one can be used as it is. In addition, since it can be installed on such an open shelf, even if the type and number of experimental animals change and the size of the breeding container changes, the breeding shelf and the collective exhaust
Has the advantage that it can be used as it is. FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the breeding container. In the figure, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 4, an inner wall of the frame portion 30 has a window frame-shaped support plate 30 for supporting a resin cover described later.
a, partition support plate 3 erected on the window frame-shaped support plate 30a
0b is provided. A filter 31 is laid on the support plates 30a and 30b. The filter 31 is formed in a size slightly smaller than the inner size of the frame portion 30 so as to be easily attached and detached.

The resin cover 32 is formed of a rectangular plate capable of closing the upper opening of the frame portion 30, and has a window frame-shaped portion 3 on its bottom surface.
2a is projected downward, and a partition 32b is projected so as to divide the area surrounded by the window frame-shaped portion 32a into 2: 1. These resin covers 32,
The window frame portion 32a and the partition portion 32b are integrally formed,
A plurality of through holes 32c are provided on the intake side, and a through hole 32d communicating with the exhaust thin tube 14 is provided on the exhaust side.

A packing 33 is attached to each of the bottom surfaces of the window frame portion 32a and the partition portion 32b. When the resin cover 32 is engaged with the frame portion 30, the window frame portion 3 is closed.
2a corresponds to the window frame-shaped support plate 30a, and the partition 32b corresponds to the partition support plate 30b, and the packing 33 is deformed with the filter 31 interposed therebetween, whereby the filter 31 is partitioned into a region 31a and a region 31b. , Independent intake unit 3
4 and the exhaust part 35 are formed.

The arrow "FL" shown in FIG. 4 (b) indicates the flow of air in the breeding container. When the blower 18 starts the suction operation, the air flows from the intake side filter 31a in this embodiment as well. The air that has flowed down in a laminar flow state, flows horizontally in the lower part of the cage 1, turns upward, becomes an ascending airflow, passes through the exhaust-side filter 31 b, and flows through the exhaust-side narrow tube 1.
Suctioned and discharged from 4.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a case where the above-mentioned sheet filter is constituted by a pleated filter and is mounted inside the frame 30. The use of the pleated filter 50 shown in FIG. 6 can increase the surface area as compared with the sheet filter, and can reduce the pressure loss. The pleated filter 50 may be, for example, Toyo filter paper AF-992.

Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described more specifically. [Example 1] Width 200mm, depth 300mm, depth 135mm
A sealed container having a height of 80 mm was attached to a commercially available container for mice consisting of: to constitute a breeding container (internal volume: 10 liters). Filters and filter exhaust unit intake section, the effective filtration area using 120 cm ^2, 60cm ² in performance filter (Toyo Roshi AF-750), respectively. As the exhaust thin tube connected to the lid, a urethane resin tube having an inner diameter of 6 mm, an outer diameter of 8 mm, and a length of 200 mm is used. 298 on the ground
to the original assumptions breeding the mouse of the room m ² at 3850 pieces of the breeding cages, breeding experiment of 1 scale to about 50 minutes 5
A total of 72 breeding cages were stored on shelves in a 6 m ² room in 6 rows × 12 rows.

When the pressure of the collective exhaust pipe was adjusted to -20 mmAq, the total displacement was 28 m ³ / min, and the displacement per cage was constant within a range of 6.5 ± 0.5 liter / min. . The inside of the cage had a negative pressure of about 1 mmAq. The room was subjected to general air conditioning at a ventilation rate of 5 times / hr, the room temperature was 24 ° C. on average, and the relative humidity was 45 ± 5%. When 25 g of commercially available soft chip bedding was spread in this breeding cage and five ddY mice (7-week-old females) were accommodated and bred, the ammonia concentration in the exhaust air was 9 days after the bedding was replaced. Did not exceed 10 ppm. In addition, the wet state of the floor covering was such that the test animals could live comfortably. In the breeding cage, the temperature is about 1 ° C and the relative humidity is about 10%.
It was higher than the indoor environment. Note that the indoor ammonia concentration was not detected.

[Example 2] Under the same conditions as in Example 1, breeding was performed by setting the pressure of the collecting exhaust pipe to -35 mmAq and increasing the average air volume per breeding cage to 10 liter / min. The ammonia concentration in the exhaust did not exceed 10 ppm for 14 days after replacing the bedding. In the breeding cage, the temperature was about 1 ° C. and the relative humidity was about 7% higher than the indoor environment.

[Comparative Example 1] When mice were bred under the same conditions as in Example 1 using an open cage having the same size as in Example 1, the ammonia concentration in the room was changed to 4 after replacing the bedding. The level was 5 ppm on the day and exceeded 50 ppm on the 6th day, causing discomfort to workers. The bedding was wet enough to exude urine. For this reason, the open breeding method, which has been the standard, is still 15 times /
It was confirmed that ventilation rate of about hr was required.

[Comparative Example 2] When a commercially available filter cap was attached to an open cage having the same size as in Example 1, and mice were bred under the same conditions as in Example 1, the concentration of ammonia in the room It became 30 ppm on the fourth day after the exchange and exceeded 200 ppm on the fifth day. This breeding method is 3
The anatomical findings of the mice repeated twice showed congestion in the lungs, demonstrating that this was not a good breeding system.

[0034]

According to the present invention, it is possible to simplify the structure of a laboratory animal breeding apparatus, and to reduce the equipment cost and maintenance cost required for ventilation, while greatly reducing disease infection and the spread of malodor in a room. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of a laboratory animal breeding container of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a lid shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a laboratory animal breeding apparatus and system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway plan view and a sectional view showing another embodiment of the experimental animal breeding container.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part showing a pleated filter of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a conventional isolation box system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List A Laboratory animal breeding container B Laboratory animal breeding device FL Air flow 1 Cage 2 Wire mesh 3 Packing 4 Lid 5 Inlet 6 Exhaust 7 Partition plate 8 Filter for intake 9 Filter retainer 10 Filter for exhaust 11 Filter retainer 12 Exhaust Unit cover 12a Air gap 13 Connection port 14 Exhaust tubing 17 Collecting exhaust pipe 17a Ultra-high performance filter 18 Blower 19 Ozone decomposition / deodorization catalyst 50 Pleated filter

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Koichi Sakano 1-25-12 Kannondai, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki Nippon Shokubai Tsukuba Research Laboratories Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takashi Yoshizaki 1-7 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo -1 Toda Construction Co., Ltd. Head Office (72) Inventor Akira Osakaya 1-7-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Toda Construction Co., Ltd. Head Office (72) Inventor Yukitada Murae 1-7-Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 1 Toda Construction Co., Ltd. Headquarters (56) References JP-A-4-66034 (JP, A) JP-A 62-231 (JP, A) JP-A 61-170258 (JP, U) (58) Survey Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F24F 7/06

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A laboratory animal breeding container comprising a container body and a lid portion, wherein the lid portion has an intake portion having a wide-opening and an exhaust portion having a wide-opening, and the exhaust portion has a sheet or pleated shape. A filter in the shape of a filter is provided, an exhaust portion cover is provided on the lid portion so as to cover a gap on the filter exit side, and an exhaust port is formed in the exhaust portion cover, and an exhaust port is formed in the exhaust port. A laboratory animal breeding container characterized by being connected with a tubule for use in breeding laboratory animals. 2. The exhaust tube has an inner diameter of 12 mm or less, and a length of at least 10 times the inner diameter.
A laboratory animal breeding container as described. 3. The laboratory animal breeding container according to claim 1, wherein a sheet-shaped or pleated filter is mounted on the suction unit. 4. The laboratory animal breeding container according to claim 1, wherein an opening area of the intake section is formed to be equal to or larger than an opening area of the exhaust section. 5. A plurality of the experimental animal breeding vessels according to claim 1, and an exhaust collecting pipe branched and connected to the exhaust tubing of each of the breeding vessels to collect contaminated air discharged from the exhaust tubing. A laboratory animal breeding apparatus, comprising: 6. The laboratory animal breeding apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a deodorizing catalyst for deodorizing exhaust air is provided downstream of the exhaust collecting pipe. 7. The laboratory animal breeding apparatus according to claim 5, which is connected to an outlet side of the exhaust manifold, and sucks air from a gap in the exhaust unit cover through the exhaust narrow tube and the exhaust manifold. A suction means for sucking air in the laboratory animal breeding container in a laminar state through the filter.