Characterizing ambient noise and vibration in facilities designed for laboratory animal research

摘要

Noise and vibration are uncontrolled environmental variables that are not regularlymonitored in laboratory animal facilities. Investigators, facility managers, and otherlaboratory animal professionals are often concerned that noise and vibration may beadversely affecting rodent breeding in medical research facilities but there is a lack of“animal-centric” criteria that can be used to evaluate acceptability. Many complicatingfactors arise due to species and strain-specific acoustic sensitivity which differs from that ofhuman sensitivity. In this paper we discuss a recent investigation of ambient noise andvibration in a facility where pup survival rate was affected in transgenic mice colonies. Wediscuss the approach used for evaluating and comparing rooms and racks with differentbreeding performance. We present data collected at the room and cage level and examineboth steady-state and transient noise sources. More research is needed to better understandthe potential for these variables to affect breeding trends and research outcomes.