Rehg J E, Toth L A
Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Lab Anim Sci. 1998 Oct;48(5):438-47.
In animal research, validity and reproducibility of data are critically influenced by the microbial status of the experimental animals. One of the most crucial aspects of assuring quality in animal research is providing research personnel with confidence that experimental results will not be invalidated due to interference caused by infectious disease. An effective quarantine program is essential to providing this assurance. Quarantine programs are generally instituted to prevent the introduction of rodent pathogens into established specific-pathogen-free colonies in a facility. Therefore, programs should be designed to isolate newly acquired rodents until their health status can be determined and to maximize the probability that microorganisms of interest will be detected before the animals are introduced into (and thus, could potentially contaminate) established colonies. Important principles that are critical to designing an effective quarantine program will be discussed here, as will the practical implementation of these principles. Although quarantine programs may be costly in terms of time and effort, these costs must be balanced against the potential costs of disease outbreaks that could invalidate long-term studies, alter normal biological baselines, and cause the loss or necessitate re-derivation of rare or valuable strains of rodents. Reducing the incidence of quarantine failures through appropriate program design and implementation helps to maintain the confidence of research personnel in the value of quarantine programs and in our competence as specialists in laboratory animal management and as partners in the research process.
在动物研究中，数据的有效性和可重复性会受到实验动物微生物状态的严重影响。确保动物研究质量的最关键方面之一，是让研究人员相信实验结果不会因传染病的干扰而无效。有效的检疫计划对于提供这种保证至关重要。检疫计划通常旨在防止将啮齿动物病原体引入设施中已建立的无特定病原体种群。因此，计划应设计为隔离新获取的啮齿动物，直到确定它们的健康状况，并最大程度提高在动物被引入（并因此可能污染）已建立的种群之前检测到感兴趣微生物的概率。这里将讨论设计有效检疫计划至关重要的重要原则，以及这些原则的实际应用。尽管检疫计划在时间和精力方面可能成本高昂，但这些成本必须与疾病爆发的潜在成本相权衡，疾病爆发可能使长期研究无效、改变正常生物学基线，并导致稀有或珍贵啮齿动物品系的丢失或需要重新培育。通过适当的计划设计和实施降低检疫失败的发生率，有助于维持研究人员对检疫计划价值的信心，以及对我们作为实验动物管理专家和研究过程合作伙伴能力的信心。
