JP6882825B2 - Laboratory animal breeding equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention is a technique relating to an experimental animal breeding apparatus that can be suitably used when breeding experimental animals such as mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits in research facilities such as research institutes.

Various experiments conducted using laboratory animals have spread widely to basic research fields of pharmacology and pathology, including non-clinical studies to question safety and efficacy, and have shown a remarkable increase in recent years. However, since it has a dangerous aspect depending on the content of the experiment, a dedicated laboratory animal breeding device having various structural features has been conventionally used for the safe breeding of the above-mentioned experimental animals.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram in which the laboratory animal breeding apparatus shown as FIG. 1 in Patent Document 1 is reprinted with different drawing codes, and FIG. 7 is also shown as FIG. 2 in Patent Document 1. It is a schematic cross-sectional view which reprinted the breeding cage with a different drawing code.

Re-table 2005/082130

As shown in FIG. 6, the laboratory animal breeding apparatus 101 of Patent Document 1 is arranged in the laboratory animal breeding room 100 and can store a large number of breeding cages 112, and the breeding rack 102 is provided. It is composed of a breeding cage 112 to be stored.

In this case, the breeding rack 102 includes a rack body configured by arranging a plurality of shelf boards 103 extending in the horizontal direction at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction and supporting each of the shelf boards 103 with columns.

The space between the shelves 103 in the breeding rack 102 is a cage accommodating portion 104 in which a plurality of breeding cages 112 are arranged, and a plurality of breeding cages 112 are arranged in each cage accommodating portion 104 at substantially predetermined intervals in the lateral direction. The experimental animals are placed open and housed in the breeding cage 112 and bred. The plate that closes the back side of the cage accommodating portion 104 is the casing plate of the exhaust box 105 that is attached to the back side of the rack body. On the back plate of the breeding rack 102 formed of the casing plate, an exhaust port 106 is formed substantially corresponding to the position of each breeding cage 112 arranged in the cage accommodating portion 104, and each cage accommodating portion 104 is formed. , Each exhaust port 106 communicates with the exhaust chamber 107 of the exhaust box 105. The exhaust box 105 is connected to an exhaust fan 109 installed outdoors by an exhaust duct 108, and the air exhausted into the exhaust chamber 107 of the exhaust box 105 is discharged to the outside of the experimental animal breeding room 100 by the exhaust fan 109. To. Reference numeral 130 in FIG. 5 indicates an indoor air outlet for air conditioning, 131 indicates an air conditioner, 132 indicates a power supply, and 133 indicates an information treatment device.

On the other hand, the breeding cage 112 shown in FIG. 7 is composed of a cage main body 113 having an open upper portion and a cover 114 detachably provided so as to close the upper surface of the cage main body 113. An air supply device 115 and an exhaust device 119 for ventilating the inside of the breeding cage 112 are provided on the upper surface of the cover 114, and the air supply device 115 includes a fan device 117 and a first filter 118 composed of a HEPA filter. It is composed of the provided fan filter unit 116. The exhaust device 119 is composed of an exhaust port formed on the upper surface of the cover 114 and a second filter 15 attached so as to cover the exhaust port.

Therefore, according to the laboratory animal breeding device 101 of Patent Document 1, air is taken in from the outside of the breeding cage 112 and cleaned by the air supply device 115 including the fan filter unit 116 attached to the cover 114 of the breeding cage 112. Therefore, the presence or absence of ventilation in the breeding cage 112 can be easily confirmed only by monitoring the operation of the air supply device 115. Further, the air in the breeding cage 112 is taken into the breeding cage 112 while being purified from the outside by the fan filter unit 116, and the air in the breeding cage 112 can be exhausted from the exhaust port 106 through the second filter 120. Become. Furthermore, even if a ventilation problem occurs in one breeding cage 112, it does not affect the ventilation of the other breeding cage 112, so that the breeding environment for the breeding animals in the other breeding cage 112 changes. It is said that it will not be given.

However, according to the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the breeding cage 112 is composed of a cage main body 113 and a cover 114 that is detachably provided so as to close the upper surface of the cage main body 113, and each cover 114. Since it is necessary to separately provide an air supply device 115 and an exhaust device 119 for ventilating the inside of the breeding cage 112 on the upper surface of the cage 112, the structure of the breeding cage 112 itself becomes complicated and costs increase. Not only that, there was a problem that the maintenance frequency became relatively high due to the complicated structure.

Further, since the air supply device 115 of Patent Document 1 attempts to ventilate the inside of the breeding cage 112 by sending clean air toward the bottom surface of the cage main body 113, it also causes stress on laboratory animals. There was also the problem of raising it that much.

In view of the above-mentioned problems found in the prior art including the above-mentioned patent documents, the present invention provides a laboratory animal breeding apparatus capable of realizing cost reduction while further improving the breeding environment and maintainability of laboratory animals. Its purpose is to provide.

The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and includes a rack body in which one or more shelves in the horizontal and horizontal directions are arranged in the vertical direction and the shelves are supported by support columns. A breeding rack arranged in the laboratory animal breeding room and a breeding cage for accommodating the laboratory animals with the upper surface as an opening surface are provided at least, and the breeding cage is supplied from an air-conditioned air supply port provided on the laboratory animal breeding room side. capable the breeding rack to force exhaust through the exhaust duct of conditioned air from the front end side of the opening surface of rearing cage to the original in the laboratory animal breeding outdoor unidirectional airflow reaches the rear end In the laboratory animal breeding apparatus housed in the above, the shelf plate portion includes a top plate portion extending to the exhaust chamber side provided on the back side of the rack body and a folded piece portion folded back from the front end surface side of the top plate portion. And, in order to form an outlet for clean air opened toward the opening surface of the breeding cage between the folded piece and the folded piece, the lower part is arranged slightly above the folded piece and reaches the exhaust chamber side. The face plate portion and the side plate portion that closes both side surfaces of the upper surface plate portion, the folded piece portion, and the lower surface plate portion have a hollow portion on at least one side on the front end side and a hollow portion on the other side on the rear end side. formed by securing separate, the one side hollow portion, the pillar portion positioned near the front end portion of the breeding cage be in the rack body was communicated as a hollow column portion, said other side hollow portion, the upper an exhaust port to form an exhaust stream towards the its lower surface, and, together with the Ru is communicated exhaust duct and communicating, to the hollow strut, feeding of the clean air supplied from the blowing means side to be separately prepared The most important feature is that it also functions as an air duct.

In this case, it is preferable that a mesh-structured pre-filter portion is detachably arranged at the exhaust port provided on the front end side of the shelf plate portion. Further, the front end side of the shelf board portion may be provided with a front inclined surface portion on the upper surface side thereof and a curved surface portion on the lower surface corner portion. Further, the rack body may be provided with a rectifying slope portion on the corner portion side of each of the support columns located on the air flow side.

According to the invention of claim 1, not only the conditioned air is supplied to the laboratory animal breeding apparatus side from the air-conditioned air supply port provided on the laboratory animal breeding room side, but also the clean air supplied from the separately prepared ventilation means side is racked. Since each breeding cage can be ventilated by two systems of air flow that are supplied to each breeding cage side via the main body, even if a problem occurs on the air-conditioned air side, each is on the separately prepared ventilation means side. Ventilation of the breeding cage can be provided, and the breeding environment of laboratory animals can be improved accordingly.

In addition, the fact that each breeding cage can be ventilated by two systems of airflow means that the amount of air-conditioned air taken into each breeding cage from the laboratory animal breeding room side can be relatively reduced. Therefore, the possibility that the laboratory animal is contaminated from the worker side in the laboratory animal breeding room can be reduced accordingly.

Moreover, the one-sided hollow portion secured on the front end side of the shelf plate portion is formed between the folded-back piece portion and the lower surface plate portion which is arranged slightly above the folded-back piece portion and reaches the exhaust chamber side. Since it is equipped with an exhaust port for clean air that is opened toward the opening surface of the cage, the inside of the breeding cage is pushed in from the front end side toward the opening surface of the breeding cage through the outlet. While attracting the stagnant air, it can be surely ventilated by pushing it toward the exhaust duct side under the exhaust flow going upward through the exhaust port on the rear end side. Further, when ventilating, the air is not directly blown to the laboratory animal in the breeding cage, so that the stress can be eliminated and the breeding environment of the laboratory animal can be improved.

According to the invention of claim 2, since the pre-filter portion having a mesh structure is detachably arranged at the exhaust port of the shelf plate portion, it is not a concentrated air flow but a dispersed soft air flow. As a result of being able to be exhausted from the breeding cage as an air flow, the stress on the laboratory animal can be reduced accordingly. In addition, by having the pre-filter part of the mesh structure also function as a hair removal filter, it is possible not only to prevent various dust including hair derived from experimental animals from entering the exhaust duct side, but also to clog it. Even if this happens, it can be normalized by simply replacing the pre-filter portion of the mesh structure, and as a result, it can contribute to the improvement of maintainability.

According to the invention of claim 3, the front end portion of the shelf board portion is provided with a front inclined surface portion on the upper surface side thereof and a curved surface portion on the lower surface corner portion, so that operability when the upper and lower breeding cages are taken in and out is provided. Can be further improved.

According to the invention of claim 4, since the rack main body has a rectifying slope portion formed on the corner portion side of each of the support columns located on the air flow side, the inflow air into the rack main body is rectified. It can be taken in more smoothly under the condition.

It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of this invention, (a) shows the front view, and (b) shows the plan view, respectively. Longitudinal sectional view of FIG. FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a main part showing the arrangement relationship between a single shelf board portion having a breeding rack and a breeding cage in FIG. 2. An enlarged explanatory view of a main part showing a mutual arrangement relationship in a state where the hollow support portion and the tip side of the shelf board portion in the breeding rack are communicated with each other. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the pre-filter part of the mesh structure in this invention, (a) shows the schematic whole perspective view, (b) shows (a) the vertical sectional view, respectively. FIG. 6 is a configuration explanatory view schematically showing a laboratory animal breeding room equipped with a conventional laboratory animal breeding device (reposted view of FIG. 1 in Patent Document 1). FIG. 6 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view showing one breeding cage arranged in a breeding rack (reposted view of FIG. 2 in Patent Document 1).

1A and 1B are explanatory views showing an example of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A shows a front view and FIG. 1B shows a plan view. Further, FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 (a). According to these figures, in the laboratory animal breeding apparatus 11, the shelf plate portions 17 facing in the horizontal and horizontal directions are arranged in five stages including the one corresponding to the top plate portion in the vertical direction, and the shelf plate portions 17 are supported. A breeding rack 12 having a rack body 13 supported by a portion 14 and arranged in a laboratory animal breeding room (not shown) as shown as a laboratory animal breeding room 100 in FIG. 6, and an opening surface 43 on the upper surface. It is configured to include at least a breeding cage 42 for accommodating laboratory animals.

Of these, the breeding rack 12 includes support columns 14 that are erected at at least four corners, and shelf board portions 17 that are supported by these support columns 14 at equal intervals under a five-tiered structure. A rack body 13 including at least a bottom plate portion 50 and casters 51 arranged at four locations on the floor surface side via a support column portion 14 is provided. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the air flow is rectified on the corner portion side of each support column portion 14 (including the hollow support column portion 15) located on the air flow side in the rack body 13. A rectifying slope portion 14a is formed.

On the shelf plate 17 located at a position corresponding to the top plate in the rack body 13, air in the laboratory animal breeding room (not shown) is sent to the shelf plate 17 side via the pre-filter portion 31. A blower means 30 composed of a blower fan or the like, a HEPA filter part 32 that is interposed between the blower means 30 and the shelf board part 17 side to purify the air, and an exhaust duct 33 provided with an inspection port 34. in addition, such connected relay unit 3 6 a to the relay portion 35a and the feed water return pipe 36 connected to the water supply outward pipe 35 is disposed. Reference numeral 37 in the drawing indicates a water supply nozzle, 38 indicates a drain pipe, and 39 indicates an operation handle for fixing the rack body 13 side to the wall side via a hook member 39a provided on the rear end side.

In this case, as is clear from FIG. 3, the shelf plate portion 17 is inclined forward to the upper surface plate portion 18 leading to the exhaust chamber 16 side provided on the back side of the rack body 13 and the front end surface of the upper surface plate portion 18. A folded piece portion 19 that forms a surface portion 18a and is folded back while securing a curved surface portion 19a, a lower surface plate portion 20 that is arranged slightly above the folded portion 19 and reaches the exhaust chamber 16 side, and these upper surface plates. A side plate portion 23 that closes both side surfaces of the portion 18, the folded piece portion 19, and the lower surface plate portion 20 is provided.

Therefore, between the folded piece portion 19 and the lower surface plate portion 20, a clean air outlet 21 opened toward the opening surface 43 of the housed breeding cage 42 has a length in the left-right direction in FIG. It will be secured as a direction.

Moreover, the support column 14 in the rack body 13 at least at the position facing the front end 44 of the rearing cage 42 (corresponding position) is supplied from the air blowing means 30 side as shown in FIG. It is formed as a hollow strut portion 15 so as to function as an air supply duct for clean air.

Further, an opening 15a is provided at a portion of the hollow strut portion 15 that is in close contact with the side plate portion 23 side of the shelf plate portion 17, and the side of the shelf plate portion 17 facing the opening 15a. Since the face plate portion 23 is also provided with the opening 23a, the one-side hollow portion 22 secured in the front end side lateral direction (the left-right direction in FIG. 1 is the length direction) of the shelf plate portion 17 is on the hollow support portion 15 side. Will be arranged in a state of mutual communication with.

Moreover, in the lower surface plate portion 20 located on the rear end side of the shelf plate portion 17, a protruding portion 25 slightly raised toward the upper surface plate portion 18 side is formed with the left-right direction in FIG. 1 as the length direction. In the length direction of the protruding portion 25, an exhaust port 25a having an appropriate width is provided so as to communicate with the other side hollow portion 24 secured between the upper surface plate portion 18 and the lower surface plate portion 20.

The protruding portion 25 covers the mounting bracket 27 having an L-shaped cross section and having a vent 27a formed in a positional relationship facing the exhaust port 25a side of the protruding portion 25, and the vent 27a of the mounting bracket 27. A pre-filter portion 26 composed of a mesh-structured filter 28 attached in this manner is replaceably attached via a detachable means 29 such as a leaf spring material.

On the other hand, the breeding cage 42 is supplied from an air-conditioned air supply port (not shown) provided on the laboratory animal breeding room side (not shown) like the air-conditioned air supply port 130 provided in the laboratory animal breeding room 100 shown in FIG. Forced exhaust of conditioned air from the front end 44 side to the rear end 45 side through the exhaust duct 33 to the outside of the laboratory animal breeding room is possible under the unidirectional airflow. It is formed with an appropriate structure that can be hung, hung, or placed.

That is, the breeding cage 42 is formed in a container shape having an opening surface 43 on the upper surface and having an appropriate depth and width, and the front end portion 44 side thereof is located near the clean air outlet 21 provided on the shelf plate portion 17 side. The rear end portion 45 side is housed and arranged on the rack body 13 side so as to be located near the pre-filter portion 26 provided on the shelf plate portion 17 side.

Next, the action / effect of the present invention according to the above configuration will be described. That is, in the experimental animal breeding device 1, the air supplied from the air blowing means 30 to the shelf board portion 17 side is made into clean air by passing through the HEPA filter portion 32, and then the hollow support portion 15 of the rack body 13 is provided. Clean air can be sent from the opening 15a into the hollow portion 22 on one side of the shelf board 17 through the opening 23a and pushed out toward the opening surface of the breeding cage 42 through the outlet 21.

Therefore, air-conditioned air can be sent as a one-way airflow from the front end 44 side to the rear end 45 side of the breeding cage 42 in the experimental animal breeding apparatus 11 from the air-conditioned air supply port (not shown) provided on the experimental animal breeding room side (not shown). Not only that, each breeding cage 42 can be ventilated by two systems of air flow in which clean air supplied from the separately prepared ventilation means 30 side is supplied to each breeding cage 42 side via the rack body 13. Therefore, even if a trouble occurs on the air-conditioned air side, the ventilation of each breeding cage 42 can be provided to the separately prepared ventilation means 30 side, and the breeding environment of the experimental animal can be improved accordingly. ..

In addition, the fact that each breeding cage 42 can be ventilated by two systems of airflow means that the amount of air-conditioned air taken into each breeding cage 42 from the laboratory animal breeding room side can be relatively reduced. Therefore, the possibility that the laboratory animal is contaminated from the worker side in the laboratory animal breeding room can be reduced accordingly.

Moreover, the one-side hollow portion 22 secured on the front end side of the shelf plate portion 17 is a combination of the folded piece portion 19 and the lower surface plate portion 20 which is arranged slightly above the folded piece portion 19 and reaches the exhaust chamber 16 side. Since the clean air outlet 21 formed between them is provided toward the opening surface 43 of the breeding cage 42, the clean air outlet 21 is provided so as to be directed toward the opening surface 43 of the breeding cage 42. The source of the exhaust flow that goes upward through the exhaust port 25a on the rear end side while attracting the stagnant air (see the thick line arrow) in the breeding cage 42 while pushing the clean air from the front end side as shown in FIG. By sending the air from the exhaust chamber 16 through the exhaust duct 33 to the outside of the experimental animal breeding room (not shown), ventilation can be ensured.

In addition, when ventilating, it is possible to attract the stagnant air in the breeding cage 42 and direct it toward the exhaust port 25a without directly blowing air on the experimental animal, so that the stress can be eliminated and the experiment can be performed. The breeding environment for animals can be improved.

Further, when the mesh-structured pre-filter portion 26 is detachably arranged at the exhaust port 25a of the shelf plate portion 17, the breeding cage is not a concentrated air flow but a dispersed soft air flow. As a result of being able to exhaust from the inside of 42, the stress applied to the experimental animal can be reduced accordingly.

Further, when the pre-filter portion 26 having a mesh structure also functions as a hair removal filter, it is possible to prevent various dusts including hairs derived from experimental animals from entering the exhaust chamber 16 and the exhaust duct 33. The maintenance frequency can be reduced accordingly.

Further, when the pre-filter portion 26 having a mesh structure is clogged, it can be normalized by simply replacing the pre-filter portion 26, and as a result, it is possible to contribute to the improvement of maintainability.

Further, when a front inclined surface portion 18a is provided on the upper surface plate portion 18 side at the front end portion of the shelf plate portion 17, and a curved surface portion 19a is provided on the lower surface corner portion side which is the folded piece portion 19, the upper and lower surfaces are provided. The operability when putting in and taking out the breeding cage 42 can be further improved.

Further, when the rectifying slope portion 14a is formed on the corner portion side of each of the support columns 14 located on the air flow side of the rack main body 13 as shown in FIG. 4, the inside of the rack main body 13 is entered. The inflow air can be taken in more smoothly under the rectified state.

The above is a description of the present invention based on the illustrated examples, and the specific structure thereof is not limited thereto. For example, in the illustrated example, the shelf board portion 17 is arranged in a five-stage configuration, but if there is one or more stages, the shelf plate portion 17 can be arranged under an appropriate number of stages. Further, although an example in which the blowing means 30 is arranged for each breeding rack 12 is shown, it is also possible to arrange the blowing means 30 so that the same blowing means 30 can blow air to one or more breeding racks 12 if desired.

11 Experimental animal breeding equipment 12 Breeding rack 13 Rack body 14 Strut 14a Slope for rectification 15 Hollow strut 15a Opening 16 Exhaust chamber 17 Shelf plate 18 Top plate 18a Front inclined surface 19 Folded piece 19a Curved surface 20 Bottom Face plate 21 Blow-out port 22 One side hollow part 23 Side plate part 23a Opening 24 Other side hollow part 25 Protruding part 25a Exhaust port 26 Pre-filter part 27 Fixture 27a Ventilation port 28 Mesh structure filter 29 Detachable means 30 Blower means 31 Pre Filter part 32 HEPA filter part 33 Exhaust duct 34 Inspection port 35 Water supply outbound pipe 35a Relay part 36 Water supply return pipe 36a Relay part 37 Water supply nozzle 38 Drain pipe 39 Operation handle 39a Hook 42 Breeding cage 43 Opening surface 44 Front end 45 Rear end 50 Bottom plate 51 Caster

Claims (4)

A breeding rack that is arranged in the laboratory animal breeding room with a rack body in which the shelf board portions facing the horizontal and horizontal directions are arranged in one or more stages in the vertical direction and the shelf board portion is supported by the support columns, and the upper surface is opened. at least a rearing cage for housing laboratory animals as a plane, the breeding cage, after the air-conditioning air supplied from the air conditioning air inlet of the laboratory animal breeding chamber side is provided from the front end side of the opening surface of rearing cage In the laboratory animal breeding apparatus housed in the breeding rack, forced exhaust is possible through the exhaust duct to the outside of the laboratory animal breeding room under a one-way airflow leading to the end side.
The shelf plate portion is between the upper surface plate portion extending to the exhaust chamber side provided on the back side of the rack body, the folded piece portion folded back from the front end surface side of the upper surface plate portion, and the folded piece portion. A lower plate portion that is arranged slightly above the folded piece portion and reaches the exhaust chamber side in order to form an outlet for clean air that is opened toward the opening surface of the breeding cage, and these upper plate portions and the folded portion. A side plate portion that closes both side surfaces of one portion and the lower surface plate portion is formed by securing at least one side hollow portion on the front end side and another side hollow portion on the rear end side.
The one side hollow portion, the pillar portion positioned near the front end portion of the breeding cage be in the rack body was communicated as a hollow column portion, said other side hollow portion, forming an exhaust flow directed upward an exhaust port on its lower surface that, and, together with Ru so the through exhaust duct and communicating,
An experimental animal breeding apparatus characterized in that the hollow strut portion also has a function as an air supply duct for clean air supplied from the air blowing means side, which is separately prepared. The experimental animal breeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a mesh-structured pre-filter portion is detachably arranged at the exhaust port provided on the rear end side of the shelf plate portion. The experimental animal breeding apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the front end side of the shelf board portion is provided with a front inclined surface portion on the upper surface side thereof and a curved surface portion on the lower surface corner portion. The experimental animal breeding apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the rack body has a rectifying slope portion formed on the corner portion side of each of the support columns located on the air flow side.

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