JPH0579286B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an animal breeding device for breeding small and medium-sized animals such as rabbits, cats, and rats used in animal experiments.

(Prior Art) In order to raise animals used in animal experiments, a rack is generally provided in an animal breeding room, a plurality of cages are arranged side by side on this rack, and animals are housed in each rack.

Generally, animal breeding rooms are provided with an air supply port that supplies fresh air from the outside into the room, and an exhaust port that exhausts polluted air from the room to the outside to forcefully ventilate the room. This cleans indoor air to maintain a clean environment for animals and workers, prevents indoor air from adversely affecting animal experiment data, and prevents cross-infection between animals. This is to protect workers from odors, dust, and airborne bacteria. In order to ventilate the room, it is important that the airflow distribution accompanying the ventilation be in a state that allows the above-mentioned purpose of ventilation to be achieved.

Conventionally, the method shown in Figure 7 has been adopted for ventilation in animal breeding rooms. Namely, 1 is an animal rearing room, 2 is a rack constructed by arranging a plurality of shelves 3 vertically at intervals so that a plurality of tiers are arranged vertically, and 4 is a rack in which a plurality of shelves 3 of rack 2 are arranged side by side. This is a cage for housing animals. The racks 2 are arranged in pairs on both the left and right sides of the breeding room 1. According to the arrangement of the racks 2, an air supply port 5 is provided in the center of the ceiling of the breeding room 1, and an air supply port 5 is provided in the center of the ceiling of the breeding room 1. Each of them is provided with an exhaust port 6.

Then, air sent from a blower device (not shown) is blown out from the air supply port 5 into the center of the interior of the breeding room 1, and after passing through each cage 4 provided on each shelf 3 of each rack 2, the air is The inside of the breeding room 1 is forcedly ventilated by exhausting the air from both sides of the inside through the exhaust ports 6 to the outside by an exhaust device (not shown).
A single ventilation operation supplies air equivalent to the capacity of the entire breeding room into the room, and exhausts the same amount of air from the room. This ventilation is performed at predetermined intervals.

However, in such a conventional ventilation system, the rack 2 is completely open to the indoor space of the breeding room 1, and the air supply side and the exhaust side are not separated, so that air is blown into the room from the air supply port 5. Induced by the flow of fresh air, polluted air containing odor and dust flows back from the cage side to the work space at the front of the cage where the worker is located, circulates within the room, and is properly exhausted from the exhaust port 6. Because of this, there was a problem of poor ventilation efficiency.

Therefore, recently, a system has been proposed in which the inside of the breeding room 1 is partitioned into an air supply side and an air exhaust side with respect to the rack 2, that is, the cage side and the work space side. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a front plate 7 is provided on the front surface of each rack 2 to cover the entire front surface, and a partition plate 8 is further provided connecting the rack 2 and the exhaust port 6. Front plate 7
An opening 9 is formed at a position facing each cage 4, and each opening 9 allows air to flow from the front side to the rear side, and prevents air from flowing from the rear side to the front side. A lid (not shown) is provided.

According to this system, the air supplied into the room from the air supply port 5 enters each cage 4 through each opening 9 of the front plate 7, and then flows along the partition plate 8 to the exhaust port 6.
is discharged to the outside. That is, since the inside of the breeding room 1 is partitioned into the cage side and the work space side by the front plate 7 and the partition plate 8, fresh air is supplied to the rack 2 in one direction from the front side to the rear side. This prevents contaminated air from flowing from the cage side to the work space side, allowing contaminated air to be discharged well and improving ventilation efficiency.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, this improved ventilation system also has the following problems: The front side of the rack 2 is covered with a front plate 7, and the animals housed in the cage 4 are handled. In order to
The operator opens the front plate 7 corresponding to each cage 4 each time and performs the work only through the opening 9. For this reason, the work of handling the animals housed in the cage 4 is troublesome and very troublesome, and the work efficiency is poor.

In addition, fresh air only flows into each cage 4 through the opening 9 of the front plate 7, making it difficult for air convection to occur inside the cage 4, resulting in uneven temperature distribution inside the cage 4. This has a negative impact on experimental data and the physical condition of the animals.

Furthermore, it is still difficult to sufficiently discharge the odor in each cage 4.

The present invention was made based on the above circumstances, and
Maintaining a system in which fresh air for ventilation flows in one direction from the front to the rear of the rack, this improves work efficiency when handling animals in the cage, and also aims to equalize the temperature distribution inside the cage. Another object of the present invention is to provide an animal rearing device that can efficiently and sufficiently discharge odor from a cage.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the animal breeding apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus provided inside an animal breeding room to which ventilation air is supplied, and includes a plurality of upper and lower steps. A rack partitioned into sections, a plurality of cages for housing animals arranged side by side on each step of the rack,
an air supply passage body provided at the upper front side of each of the cages in each step of the rack and blowing air as a curtain-like air stream toward the lower part of each cage to form an air curtain that covers the front surface of each cage on the outside; a pan disposed below each of the cages arranged side by side in each step of the rack to store water and to receive excrement of the animal housed in the cage; and a rear side of the rack. an exhaust passage body provided in the pan, a front end of the pan protruding toward the front side of the cage and formed as an airflow receiving part for receiving the airflow blown from the air supply passage body; and the cage, an airflow passageway through which the airflow received by the airflow receiving portion of the pan flows, and the airflow passageway is communicated with the exhaust passageway body. be.

(Function) The air curtain formed on the front side of the cage prevents odors, dust, bacteria, etc. generated in the cage and pan from flowing into the work space.
In addition, the air forming the air curtain and the ventilation air supplied to the room where the animal rearing equipment is installed are routed from the front end of the pan through the air passage between the cage and the pan to the rear of the rack. The flow is discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct.

In addition, the air curtain forms a barrier to prevent contaminated air from flowing from the cage side to the work space side, so when workers handle animals in the cage, they must do so from the front side of the cage. Work efficiency is good because there are no restrictions on where the worker can move his hands to perform the work, and he can move his hands where necessary.

In addition, air convection occurs inside the cage due to the suction characteristics of the air curtain, making the temperature distribution inside the cage uniform.

Furthermore, the odor inside the cage can be forcefully and efficiently exhausted by forced ventilation using the air curtain.

(Example) An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which the animal breeding apparatus of the present invention is installed in an animal breeding room.

That is, the animal breeding apparatus of the present invention is installed on both left and right sides of the animal breeding room 11, respectively.
Depending on the arrangement, an air supply port 12 is provided at the center of the ceiling of the breeding room 11, and an air exhaust port 1 is provided at each side of the ceiling.
3 is provided. The air supply port 12 is connected to an air blower (not shown), and the exhaust port 13 is connected to an exhaust device (not shown).

The animal breeding apparatus of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. Reference numeral 21 denotes a plurality of racks 22 arranged vertically at intervals, and supports both ends of these shelves 22. A pair of side plates 23, a rear plate 24 that covers the entire rear surface, and a top plate 25 are combined to partition the upper and lower parts into a plurality of steps, with the front surface of each step being open.
26 is a cage in which animals are housed, and this cage 26
A bait container 27 for storing bait is provided on the front side of the tray. The bait holder 27 is shown in FIG. Rack 2
A hanging tool 26a is provided on each step section partitioned into each shelf 22 of 1, and each hanging tool 26a is provided with a hanging tool 26a.
A plurality of cages 26 are arranged and suspended in the longitudinal direction of the shelf. An edge plate 29 is provided at the front edge of each shelf 22 over its entire length. As a result, a portion surrounded by the shelf 22, the edge plate 29, the side plates 23, and the rear plate 24 constitutes a pan 30.

This pan 30 is for receiving excrement from the animals housed in each cage 26 arranged on the auxiliary shelf 28, and is made to constantly store water. That is, the excrement of the animal inside the cage 26 falls into the pan 30 through the holes in the bottom of the cage 26 and the auxiliary shelf 28 made of a grid. In this pan 30, the shelf 22 protrudes forward from the cage 26, and the front protruding portion of the shelf 22 and the edge plate 2
9 constitutes an airflow receiver that receives airflow from an air curtain formed by an air blowing pipe, which will be described later.

Further, a gap is formed between the cage 26 and a pan 30 provided below the cage 26, which constitutes an airflow passageway passing from the front side to the rear side of the rack.

31 is an air blowing pipe provided for each stage of the rack 21 partitioned by each shelf 22;
1 is located on the front side of the upper end of the plurality of cages 26, and is arranged horizontally across each cage 26. Each air blowing pipe 31 has a diameter of 1 mm on the bottom surface as shown in FIG.
For example, a large number of small air outlet holes 32 of about 5 mm
They are arranged in the axial direction with an interval of .
Note that the blow-off holes 32 are oriented toward the airflow receiver constituted by the front protruding portion of the shelf 22 and the edge plate 29.

An air supply pipe 33 is disposed along the side edge of each side plate 23 and the side edge of the top plate 25 in the open front part of the rack 21.
Both ends of each air blowing pipe 31 arranged in each stage are connected to the portion along the side edge of each side plate 23 .
The air supply pipe 33 is connected to the valve 3 above the top plate 25 of the rack 21.
4 to an air supply pipe 35, which extends between the ceilings of the breeding room 11 and is connected to an air curtain blower (not shown).

36 is an exhaust duct, and this exhaust duct 36 is provided outside the rear plate 24 of the rack 21.
It has a size corresponding to the whole. That is, each stage of the rack 21 corresponds to each stage in the longitudinal direction. The rear plate 24 of the rack 21 has a
For example, a horizontally elongated exhaust port 37 is formed at a location located on the lower side of the cage 26 and extends over the entire lengthwise direction of the shelf. The exhaust pipe 3 is located at the center of the upper surface of the exhaust duct 36.
8 is connected, and this exhaust pipe 38 is connected to an exhaust port 13 provided on the ceiling of the breeding room 21.

The operation of the animal breeding apparatus configured in this way will be explained.

The features of this animal breeding equipment are:
to form an air curtain outside the front surface of the cage 26 at each stage.

The operation of forming this air curtain will be explained.

The pressurized air sent from the air curtain blower passes through the air supply pipe 35, and then passes through the valve 34.
The air flows through the air supply pipe 33, and in the process of flowing through the air supply pipe 33, it is sent into each air blowing pipe 31 provided at each step of the rack 21. The air sent into each air blow-off pipe 31 is passed through a large number of small holes 32 formed at small intervals throughout the axial direction on the lower surface of each air blow-off pipe 31, and is located at the lower side of each air blow-off pipe 31. The front protruding portion of each shelf 22 and the edge plate 29
The airflow is blown toward the airflow receiver, which consists of
A large number of small holes 32 are formed at small intervals throughout the axial direction on the lower surface of each air blowing pipe 31.
The air blown out from the rack 21 becomes a curtain-like airflow that covers the outside of the front opening of each step of the rack 21.
This curtain-like airflow is received by an airflow receiver.

As a result, the front side of each of the cages 26 arranged in each step is covered with an air curtain A formed by the airflow blown out from each air blowing pipe 31. The airflow received by the airflow receiving portion flows through the portion of the pan 30 located below each cage 26 from the front side of the cage 26 to the rear side, and further passes through the rack 21.
It enters the exhaust duct 36 from each exhaust port 37 formed in the rear plate 24 and passes through the exhaust pipe 38 to the rearing room 11.
The air is exhausted by an exhaust device from an exhaust port 13 provided on the ceiling. Note that FIG. 3 shows that the air curtain A is formed only at the uppermost step.

In order to ventilate the breeding room 11, pressurized air is blown into the breeding room 11 from the air supply port 12 by an air blower as shown in FIG. The blown air is diffused inside the breeding room 11, and the racks 2 of each animal breeding equipment installed in each breeding room 11 are
At the front opening of each stage of 1, the flowing force of the air curtain A is combined with the suction force of the air curtain A.
Air is sucked into the pan 30 of each stage from the airflow receiving part formed at the lower part of the front opening of each stage.
That is, each stage of the pan 30 has each air blowing pipe 3.
The air that forms the air curtain blown out from 1 and the air blown into the breeding room 11 for ventilation are sucked together. Each air blowing pipe 31 at this time
For example, the ratio of the air blown out to form the air curtain and the air blown into the rearing room 11 for ventilation is the same amount.

Thereafter, as described above, the pan 30 flows from the front side of the cage 26 to the rear side, and then the rack 21
The air enters the exhaust duct 36 through each exhaust port 37 formed on the rear plate 24, and is further exhausted to the outside through the exhaust pipe 38 through the exhaust port 13 provided on the ceiling of the rearing room 11 by an exhaust device. The exhaust amount at this time is the total amount of the airflow of the air curtain and the airflow blown into the rearing room 11, which is approximately twice the airflow of the air curtain A.

The effects of this embodiment obtained by this action will be explained.

First, in each stage of the rack 21, since the outside of the front surface of each cage 26 is covered with an air curtain A,
The airflow flowing from the cage 26 side toward the space where the worker is inside the breeding room 11 is blocked by the air curtain, and the odor, dust, floating bacteria, etc. generated in the cage and pan 30 are removed from the space where the worker is. It protects workers by preventing water from flowing into other areas.
Then, in order to ventilate the breeding room 11,
The air blown into the rack 21 is sucked together with the air forming the air curtain A from the front side of the rack 21 into the space between the cage 26 and the pan 30 by the suction force of the air forming the air curtain A.
During this time, the air flows toward the rear side of the rack 21 and is discharged from the exhaust duct 36 provided at the rear side of the rack 21 through the exhaust port 13 to the outside. The air blown into the rearing room 11 in this way flows only in one direction from the work space side to the rack side, and contaminated air does not flow from the cage side to the work space side.

In addition, since the outside of the front surface of each cage 26 in each stage of the rack 21 is covered with an air curtain A,
When a worker handles an animal in a cage, there are no restrictions on where the worker can move his or her hands to perform work on the front side of the cage 26, and the worker can move his or her hands wherever necessary. Therefore, there is a high degree of freedom in work. Therefore, the work of handling the animals housed in the cage 26 is easy and time-consuming, and the workability is very good. Note that when the worker is working, the burden caused by the air curtain is only on the hands and has almost no effect on the work.

Further, the airflow forming the air curtain A flows into the pan 30, but the part of the cage 26 corresponding to the part into which this airflow flows becomes negative pressure, and air flows into this part from other parts of the cage 26. Moving. As a result, convection occurs inside the cage 26, and this convection makes the temperature inside the cage 26 uniform. Therefore, the temperature of the cage 26 does not adversely affect the animal's physical condition or experimental data.

In addition, by forcibly ventilating the cages 26 at each stage of the rack using an air curtain,
Odors from the cages 26 at each stage can be efficiently and sufficiently discharged. Therefore, the amount of air flowing into the breeding room 11 for ventilation can be reduced, and the number of times the breeding room 11 must be ventilated can be reduced, which is highly economical.

In addition, a pan 30 containing water is provided at the bottom of the cage 26 at each stage of the rack 21 to receive the excrement of the animals housed in the cage 26, so that the odor of the excrement is absorbed into the water. It twists and holds down, making it easier to clean up excrement. That is, easy 2
A water washing tank 39 is provided on the top plate 25 of 1, and piping is provided to flow water from the tank 39 to each pan 30, as well as piping from each pan 30 to a predetermined excrement storage section. The animal excrement in the pan 30 can be washed with water by flushing it into the excrement storage part.

Further, the airflow forming the air curtain A serves to trap coarse dust such as animal hair in the pan 30 on the lower side of the cage 26. This allows coarse dust to be washed away with water.

The animal breeding apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, the rack 21 may be surrounded by sheets to provide independent ventilation.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, the air curtain formed on the front side of the cage prevents odors, dust, bacteria, etc. generated in the cage and pan from flowing into the work space. In addition, the air forming the air curtain and fresh air for ventilation supplied to the room where the animal rearing equipment is installed can be easily passed from the front end of the pan through the air passage between the cage and the pan. By flowing to the rear and exhausting to the outside from the exhaust duct, fresh air for ventilation can maintain a unidirectional flow from the front to the rear of the rack, making it easier to handle animals in cages. Therefore, it is possible to obtain an animal breeding device that can improve performance, even out the temperature distribution within the cage, efficiently discharge odor from the cage, and improve economical efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration in which the animal breeding device of the present invention is installed in a breeding room, and FIGS. 2 to 4 show an example of the animal breeding device of the present invention installed in a breeding room. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an air blowing pipe for an air curtain, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing a configuration in which a conventional animal breeding apparatus is installed in a breeding room. 11... Animal breeding room, 21... Lack, 22...
... Shelf, 26 ... Cage, 31 ... Air blowing pipe for air curtain, 36 ... Exhaust duct.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A device installed inside an animal breeding room to which ventilation air is supplied, which includes a rack partitioned into a plurality of upper and lower tiers, and a rack for housing animals arranged side by side in each tier of the rack. A plurality of cages and an air curtain provided at the upper front side of each cage at each stage of the rack and blowing air as a curtain-like air stream toward the lower part of each cage to cover the front surface of each cage on the outside. a pan for storing water and receiving excrement of the animal housed in the cage; an exhaust passage body provided on the rear side of the rack, and the front end of the pan includes:
An airflow receiving part is formed to protrude toward the front side of the cage and receive the airflow blown out from the air supply passage, and to receive the airflow received by the airflow receiving part of the pan between the pan and the cage. An animal breeding apparatus characterized in that an airflow passageway is formed, and the airflow passageway is communicated with the exhaust passageway body.