JPH07203794A - Animal breeding equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an animal breeding equipment capable of preventing contamination between human and bred animals by installing a rack with plural cages in an animal breeding room and blocking air communication between the animal breeding room and the rack and separately supplying air to the animal breeding room and the rack. CONSTITUTION:A rack 3 is installed in the interior of an animal breeding room 2 in which human carries out animal breeding works and plural cages 9 are housed in the rack 3 so as to be taking in and out. The interior of the rack 3 and the breeding room are blocked by a rack front door, etc., in normal breeding and air is separately fed to the breeding room and the rack by air feed ducts 14 and 15 and is separately discharged by discharge ducts 19 and 21.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facility for raising experimental animals such as rats and mice, and particularly to a space for animal breeders, researchers, etc.
It is related to an animal breeding facility in which a rack equipped with a plurality of cages for housing breeding animals is installed in a breeding room).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, air-conditioning of animal breeding facilities maintains a breeding environment suitable for the breeding purpose of breeding animals and is a comfortable and hygienic environment for breeders and researchers. Is desired. However, at present, there are reports that about 20% of breeders and researchers are suffering from some animal allergy symptoms, and it cannot be said that work is always performed in a comfortable environment. As a cause of this, the conventional animal breeding equipment, in a breeding room where breeders work, such as installing a cage for housing breeding animals as it is, because it adopts a so-called open rack type breeding method, It is considered that dust in cages, bacteria generated from domestic animals, and odors diffuse into the room and adversely affect the human body.

In order to cope with such a problem, an animal in a so-called one-way flow system in which the air in the animal breeding facility is directed from the breeding room to the rack so that the air in the rack does not flow out into the breeding room. A breeding facility structure is considered.

In this one-way flow rearing system, a pressure difference is generated between the inside of the rack and the inside of the rearing chamber by sucking the air in the rack by, for example, a fan, and the pressure difference causes air to flow into the rack from the rearing chamber side. It is made to flow, and depending on its suction type, a wall chamber method that constructs an exhaust chamber that communicates with each cage behind the rack using an interior material, a wall that divides the breeding room from the ceiling is hung, There are a sagging wall system in which a rack is placed in one chamber partitioned by a wall to form an exhaust chamber, and a rack chamber system in which an exhaust duct is directly connected to a rack (or a rack having a chamber on the back side).

[0005]

However, in the wall chamber system, from the viewpoint of space efficiency, since the chamber is constructed by the interior material, a construction space is required in the chamber, and the interior of the chamber is inspected. , Space for people is required for cleaning and disinfection, and space efficiency is poor. From the viewpoint of maintainability, it is difficult to perform the work because the worker cleans, inspects, and disinfects the exhaust chamber and the filter in the chamber. In this case, there is a problem of animal-to-animal contamination, in which, if disinfection or the like is insufficient, various bacteria of the animal infect another animal.
Further, from the viewpoint of workability, since the chamber is constructed by the interior material, it becomes difficult to hermetically seal the chamber and the rack and the four-sided frame, and it becomes difficult to adjust and deal with the construction work. Furthermore, this wall chamber method has another inconvenience that the breeding unit cannot be easily replaced.

In the sagging wall system, in terms of space efficiency, as in the wall chamber system, a space is required for an operator to inspect, clean and disinfect the inside of the chamber, which is inefficient in space. Further, in terms of workability and maintainability, there are difficulties and inconveniences as in the wall chamber method.

On the other hand, the rack chamber method is improved in workability as compared with the above method. However, in the case of the structure in which the chamber is formed on the back surface of the rack, the chamber may be changed depending on the size of the chamber. Workers have to enter the inside for cleaning and disinfecting the inside, and it has the same inconvenience as the above method. In this respect, in the case where the exhaust duct is integrally provided on the back surface of the rack, the maintainability is also improved.

However, in the conventional one-way flow breeding system based on a pressure difference including such a rack chamber system, an air supply port is provided in the breeding room and the air-conditioned air supplied to the breeding room is breeded through the opening of the rack. It is configured to be introduced into each cage that houses animals. Therefore, although the odor from the animal side to the human side and the contamination due to various bacteria etc. are suppressed, the contamination from the human side to the animal side such as various bacteria cannot be prevented, and in particular, the breeding research of aseptic animals is conducted. In some cases this is a big problem.

Further, in the conventional breeding system, it is necessary to overcome a great amount of resistance in the rack unit to bring the entire rack to a negative pressure, suck the air in the outer breeding chamber into the rack, and exhaust the air, which is a suction source. As a fan, it will be a huge burden. Further, when a booster fan or the like is installed in a rack in order to assist the suction operation by the fan, the noise level in the room rises with the operation, and the breeding environment may be damaged.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and completely shuts off the air flow between the human side and the breeding animal side in the breeding room to completely prevent the contamination between the human and the breeding animal. The animal breeding equipment that was prevented,
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide an animal breeding facility in which the exhaust power and the like can be reduced, the air-conditioning environment can be kept good, and the air can be supplied and exhausted more efficiently to save energy.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an animal breeding facility according to the present invention comprises a rack provided with a plurality of cages for housing breeding animals in an animal breeding room,
Air is supplied to the inside of each of the animal breeding room and the rack, and air supply means for separately supplying air to each of the animal breeding room and the rack is provided. It is characterized by blocking air flow to the rack and vice versa.

[0012] Preferably, in the above-mentioned animal breeding facility,
The air supply unit includes an air conditioner that supplies conditioned air to the animal breeding room and the rack, and a breeding room air supply duct and a rack air supply that guide the air supply from the air conditioner to the animal breeding room and the rack, respectively. A breeding room exhaust duct for discharging the air in the animal breeding room to the outside, and a rack exhaust duct for discharging the air in the rack to the outside.

Further, preferably, the air supply means is a breeding room filter means provided in an air supply duct to the animal breeding room for purifying air, and a rack provided in the air supply duct to the rack for purifying air. Filter means.

The breeding room filter means and the rack filter means are preferably HEPA filters.

Further, preferably, the air conditioners are separately provided corresponding to the animal breeding room and the rack, respectively.
It has a return air duct that guides a part of the air in the animal room to the air conditioner for the animal room.

[0016]

The air supply means supplies individually conditioned air to each of the animal breeding room and the rack, and exhausts the air inside the animal breeding room and the rack by the exhaust means. As a result, one air flow (air supply system on the human side) of air supply means → animal breeding room → exhaust means and air flow of the air supply means → rack (cage) → exhaust means (air distribution system on the animal side) And two independent air flows (separate and independent air circulation system in the breeding room) are formed.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5 respectively show schematic configurations of animal breeding equipment as each embodiment of the present invention. In addition, regarding these figures, the constituent elements common to the respective embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a rack 3 for accommodating breeding animals (not shown) is installed inside an animal breeding room 2 which constitutes an animal breeding facility (generally indicated by numeral 1). ing. Animal breeding room 2 (hereafter called breeding room)
Is a place for animal breeders or researchers to carry out animal breeding work and related research, and is similar to a general building, including wall material 4, floor material 5, and ceiling material for buildings. 6 and the like. The inside of the rack 3 has a partition 7
By the (partition material), airtight separation is made in a plurality of stages in the vertical direction, and a cage storage space 8 is formed in each stage. A cage 9 for accommodating breeding animals is accommodated in the space 8 on each level so that it can be slid in and out with respect to the breeding room side. During normal breeding, the inside of the rack and the breeding room 2 are shut off by a door (not shown) provided on the front of the rack.

Inside the rack 3, there are provided vertical ducts 10 for supplying air to the cages 9 at the respective stages in the vertical direction. In the illustrated rack 3, a plurality of cages 9 are also installed in the lateral direction (direction perpendicular to the drawing). For this reason, a lateral duct 11 for guiding air to the plurality of cages 9 arranged in the lateral direction is provided in the rack 3. Each lateral duct 11 is connected to the vertical duct 10 at its end. An HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Ai) that traps dust in the air is provided at the air outlet from the lateral duct 11 to the cage 9 at each stage.
r Filter) 12 are provided respectively.

According to this embodiment, one air conditioner 13 is provided as a means for supplying air to the breeding room 2 and the rack 3. The air conditioner 13 is composed of a filter, a heat exchange coil, a fan, etc., and takes in fresh fresh air from the outside by its operation. A part of the taken in air is fed to the breeding room air supply duct 14. It is supplied to the breeding room 2 via the rack, and the rest is supplied to the rack 3 via the rack air supply duct 15. Therefore, both ducts 1
In the case of the breeding room air supply ducts 14, one end is connected to the air conditioner 13 and the other end is indoors from the air outlet (not shown) provided in the ceiling material 6 through the HEPA filter 16. To open.

In the case of the rack air supply duct 15, it is connected to the vertical duct 10 of the rack 3, and the air supply branches from the vertical duct 10 to the horizontal duct 11 and is supplied to each cage 9 through the HEPA filter 12. . In the present embodiment, both the breeding room air supply duct 14 and the rack air supply duct 15 are provided with reheat heaters 17, 18 for keeping the temperature of the air supply in a proper state for work and breeding. It is installed.
Further, although two ducts 14 and 15 are connected to the air conditioner 13 in the figure, one duct may be connected so that the air conditioner 13 is branched from the middle into two.

On the other hand, regarding the exhaust path from the breeding room 2, the breeding room exhaust duct 19 for taking in and discharging only the air in the breeding room 2 is connected to, for example, a suction grill installed on the ceiling material 6 or the like. To be done. On the other hand, rack 3
For the exhaust from the, the one exhaust duct or exhaust chamber 20 is attached to the back surface (wall side) of the rack 3 so as to communicate with each stage. This exhaust duct or exhaust chamber 20 is also connected to a rack exhaust duct 21 similarly installed on the ceiling, and the exhaust air from the exhaust ducts 19 and 21 joins on the way and is exhausted to the outside by an exhaust fan 22. . Further, in the present embodiment, the hair removing filter 23 is used because the hair of the breeding animals in the cage 9 is not trapped in the communicating portion between the exhaust duct or the exhaust chamber 20 and each cage 9 of each stage of the rack 3 and is not discharged to the outside. Is attached. The hair removing filter 23 is configured so that only the filter portion (not shown) can be replaced with a decrease in the collection efficiency and an increase in static pressure loss due to clogging.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, air is sent to the animal breeding room 2 through the air supply means composed of the air conditioner 13 and the breeding room air supply duct 14 to exhaust the breeding room. Air is exhausted from the breeding room 2 through the exhaust means including the duct 19 and the exhaust fan 22, while the air conditioner 1 is used.
3 and the rack air supply duct 15 to supply air to the rack 3, and the air is supplied from the rack 3 to the rack 3 through an exhaust duct or an exhaust chamber 20, a rack exhaust duct 21, and an exhaust fan 22. Is being discharged. In this way, in order to create two independent air flows for the human and the domestic animal in the animal breeding facility 1, the indoor air and the rack air must be mixed in except for the downstream side of the exhaust ducts 19 and 21. Therefore, the contamination (mutual contamination) between the breeding room 2 and the rack 3 is reliably prevented. Further, since the reheating coil can be attached to each of the human-side air supply system and the animal-side air supply system, the optimum air conditioning environment can be adjusted for each, and good environment maintenance can be achieved. In the above embodiment, the air conditioner 13 is illustrated as an all-outside air type in the drawings, but it may be a type in which part of the air in the breeding room 2 is returned to the air conditioner 13.

Embodiments other than the first embodiment will be described below, but the basic concept that is common to all the embodiments is the breeding room 2 and the rack 3 in independent air flows.
Are arranged respectively, and there is no difference from the basic concept of the first embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the rack-side HEPA filter 12 in the first embodiment is integrated and installed at the end of the rack air supply duct 15, and compared with the first embodiment, the HEPA filter is different.
Since the number of filters 12 is small, the structure of the rack 3 can be simplified. The other structure, function and effect are exactly the same as those of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. In contrast to the previous embodiment in which the air supply from one air conditioner 13 is branched into two, according to this embodiment, an air conditioner 13a dedicated to the animal breeding room and an air conditioner 13b dedicated to the rack are provided. In this embodiment, since the air supply system is completely independent, only the rack 3 can be operated, and the air-conditioning on the breeding room side is stopped during periods when there are no humans in the breeding room 2 (for example, at midnight). It is possible to save power and save energy.
Further, in the present embodiment, in connection with the air conditioning of the breeding room 2, a return air duct 24 for guiding a part of the breeding room air to the breeding room air conditioner 13a is provided. This is intended to save energy by effectively utilizing exhaust heat by using a part of the indoor air as return air instead of exhausting the indoor air as it is. Other configurations and operational effects are the same as those of the first embodiment. The breeding room 2 is supplied with air through the HEPA filter 16, and each rack 9 is supplied with the HEPA filter 12.
Is supplied via.

FIG. 4 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, as in the second embodiment, the rack-side HEPA filter 12 in the third embodiment is integrated and installed at the end of the rack air supply duct 15. The other structure is exactly the same as that of the third embodiment.

Although the respective embodiments of the animal breeding equipment according to the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments, and air is supplied to and supplied to each of the animal breeding room and the rack. Any type of air supply means or exhaust means as long as it constitutes one air flow of air means → animal breeding room → exhaust means and another air flow of air supply means → rack (cage) → exhaust means But good. Further, the structure of the rack is not limited to the structure shown in the drawings, and for example, as shown in FIG.
It is also possible to widen the width of No. 1 and blow the air downward through the outlets 24 formed on the ceiling surface of each step in the rack (fifth embodiment).

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In an animal breeding room to which conditioned air is supplied, a rack-dedicated air supply means is provided for the animal housing rack installed in this animal breeding room, and air is separately supplied to the rack as a system separate from the breeding room. Since this is exhausted to the outside through an exhaust duct or exhaust chamber that is integrally provided on the back surface of the rack, mutual contamination between humans and breeding animals is completely prevented.

Further, by providing a reheat coil on each air supply duct of another system, optimum air conditioning control can be performed for each system and good environment maintenance can be achieved.

Furthermore, by providing an air conditioner for each of the separate systems, it is possible to operate one system and stop the operation of the other system, such as when a person is not in the room or there are no animals. Energy can be saved when one system does not require air conditioning.

In this case, further energy saving can be achieved by using a structure in which the air in the breeding room (human working space) is recirculated to the air conditioner.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an animal breeding facility according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an animal breeding facility according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an animal breeding facility according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of an animal breeding facility according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of an animal breeding facility according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Animal breeding equipment 2 ... Animal breeding room 3 ... Rack 9 ... Cage 12, 16 ... HEPA filter 13, 13a, 13b ... Air conditioner 14 ... Breeding room air supply duct 15 ... Rack air supply duct 19 ... Breeding room Exhaust duct 20 ... Exhaust chamber 21 ... Rack exhaust duct 22 ... Fan 23 ... Hair removal filter

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Hajime Yoshino 2-5-12 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Toyo Heat Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An animal breeding facility in which a rack having a plurality of cages for housing breeding animals is installed in an animal breeding room where humans carry out animal breeding work, and air is separately supplied to each of the animal breeding room and the rack. An animal breeding facility characterized in that air supply means for supplying air is provided to interrupt air flow from the animal breeding room to the rack and vice versa. 2. The air supply unit includes an air conditioner for supplying conditioned air to the animal breeding room and the rack, and an air supply duct for the breeding room that guides the air supply from the air conditioner to the animal breeding room and the rack, respectively. And a rack air supply duct, and a breeding room exhaust duct for discharging the air in the animal breeding room to the outside, and a rack exhaust duct for discharging the air in the rack to the outside The animal breeding facility according to claim 1. 3. The air supply means is a breeding room filter means provided in an air supply duct to the animal breeding room for purifying air, and a rack filter means provided in the air supply duct to the rack for purifying air. The animal breeding facility according to claim 2, further comprising: 4. The animal breeding apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the breeding room filter means and the rack filter means are HEPA filters. 5. The air conditioner is provided separately corresponding to the animal breeding room and the rack, and has a return air duct for guiding a part of the air in the animal breeding room to the breeding room air conditioner. The animal breeding facility according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4.