In many parts of the country, extremist groups opposing the use of animals in testing have beleaguered laboratory and research facilities using animals in the testing of new compounds and devices. Many research groups and drug researchers have developed elaborate campaigns to convince the public of the attention paid to maintaining good conditions of housing, treatment, diet and care for the species being used to test for the effectiveness of potential drugs, procedures and/or devices. Veterinarians and research directors stress humane practices. The necessity for animal use in the testing of compounds and drugs in development is widely understood and accepted, however pharmaceutical and research directors are eager to guard against the possibility that extremists will seek to disrupt ongoing testing. In this connection, construction management is involved in an owner’s efforts to protect against unwanted intrusions—both into working laboratories and construction site activities.

Jobsite construction professionals are frequently enlisted in an owner’s efforts to have a low profile regarding the nature of portions of a facility. Awareness of the intense security efforts and cooperation with the public relations departments’ directives may be called for. Elaborate security measures, at front gates, main entrances, and within animal housing complexes can include, card access, cameras, guard houses and security monitoring and reporting equipment.

2. Animal Research Facilities’ Major Components

• Animal holding spaces: for short and long term research and quarantine.
• Special facilities: for special inhalation or surgical studies, for radiological and radioisotope studies, etc.
• Veterinary support areas: for treatment, post-operative care, necropsy, pathology laboratories; storage and microbiology laboratories.
• Other support facilities: loading and discharge docks, cold rooms, storage areas for food, bedding, active and inactive cages, and rooms for volatile and hazardous agent disposal.

3. Architectural Features Animal containment facilities require barrier type separations between adjacent rooms, corridors and other spaces. Cross contamination must be avoided if research results are to be valid, and animal spaces may be kept either positive or negative to adjacent corridors, depending on their use. The flow patterns of personnel, animals, supplies, food, bedding, and wastes are crucial in the design process, and the relationship of rooms to other related spaces, such as administrative, storage, cage washing, necropsy, , incinerators, and locker rooms is important. Ease of cleanability is a prime architectural goal. The clean-dirty corridor concept is widely used. This arrangement allows for one way traffic (enter from the clean corridor and exit to the dirty corridor) of staff, animals, feed, bedding, equipment, etc. Animal care programs may require that a handler who exited from one room into a dirty corridor must change and shower and return to the clean corridor, before entering another room with other animals. Eight and seven foot corridor widths are usual in vivaria, given the need to move cages and equipment through them.

Walls, in rooms and in corridors, must be waterproof, free of cracks and easily cleaned. Fiberglass, adhesive films and epoxy coatings over dense concrete block and structural clay tile laid with hair line joints filled with epoxy grout have all been used. Concrete block, filled with several layers of grout and coated with high quality epoxy, assuring no pinholes or surface imperfections to catch and hold impurities, is the most commonly used.

Floors, in corridors and animal rooms, are required to be waterproof and resistant to the rigorous cleaning which includes solvents, disinfectants and tools. In corridors, where there are to be no low or water retaining spots, the installation of a gutter on either side provides a solution. Floors can be crowned transversely and floor drains installed in the low points of the gutters. Floor construction needs to include leakage testing.

Ceilings are required to be smooth, waterproof and capable of withstanding frequent decontamination and washing. The routing of ductwork and piping through animal rooms is avoided, to eliminate surfaces upon which pathogens might develop. All design elements are to contribute to promoting sanitation practices, which contribute to experimental integrity. Some animal rooms have gasketed, perforated panel ceilings through which air supply flows and these are washable.

Airlocks with tight doors are integral to vivaria—air flow and odor control cannot be successfully accomplished without airlocks. Airlock doors are self closing and gasketed.

Security for the vivaria around the country is often highly sophisticated; to contribute to experimental integrity through absolute control of environmental factors which might impact the testing parameters, which often extend for months. In addition, there are often corporate concerns for the safety of laboratory personnel and laboratory materiel and animals in locations where extreme animal rights advocates have attacked scientific and commercial testing facilities. Typically, animal holding areas have lock control systems linked to local processors with electric locks and solenoids programmed for a variety of possible operations. Perimeter door monitoring and alarm annunciation is standard features, and some programs include motion detectors and card access as required. Closed circuit TV is also an element in many facilities.

Provide the following:

• Monitoring temperature, relative humidity, airflow, and other parameters in each animal room. Notify personnel if any parameters are out of range.
• Control of who has access to each room, and when. Recording personnel traffic through animal rooms.
• Turning animal room lights on and off automatically in animal rooms and on schedule. Verifying light cycles for studies.
• Flushing the animal drinking water distribution system automatically to improve water quality. Notifying personnel if leaks or other problems occur.
• Storing environmental data, alarms, and other events permanently on disk. Retrieving data in reports for studies and management.
• Notification of personnel if anything goes wrong, night or day.

There is an obvious field coordination schedule to be developed with the list of elements above: electrical, hardware, door frames and doors, plumbing, and HVAC trades will contribute to the success of such an installation.

Hot and cold water are required in vivaria for washing, cleaning and animal drinking; in addition, there may be steam for room cleaning, deionized water, compressed air, vacuum (for cleaning) and gas. All potable water lines into an animal area will have back flow preventors. Automatic (animal) watering is often used in animal rooms, including those equipped with cages. Cage systems are equipped with filters; pressure-reducing valves, isolation valves and quick disconnect couplings. Washdown stations are often placed in rooms, corridors, necropsy rooms.

Small animal rooms generally have capped and sealed floor drains in them and large animal rooms generally have hand sinks and washdown stations in addition to a floor drain. The potable water entering the building will often be divided into the following:

• Domestic Use
• Laboratory Use
• Animal Watering
• Purified Laboratory Water

Animal Watering systems use potable water and can be recirculating or dead end (non-recirculating) systems with automatic flushing of in-room distribution piping. Pressure/Flow Control Stations are placed in rooms or in suites. The water supply and distribution piping materials are generally CPVC with stainless steel valves and accessories.

Automatic watering systems for laboratory animals are all custom-designed, but share basic design concepts: room distribution equipment and piping, plus manifolds and drinking valves for mobile animal racks. These systems operate at reduced pressure with low intermittent flow and require special engineering considerations. Typical systems in addition to piping contain pressure control stations which have sensors for the system connected to the central monitoring control paneling with low voltage cabling. In addition, electronic sequencer panels automatically control the actuation of solenoid valves in the pressure control stations and at the piping termination points.

Water quality can be maintained by periodically flushing the distribution piping at higher pressures, through the sequencer panels. Central monitoring systems are available, generally with microprocessor based controllers with continuous scan and real time with battery back up. Some facilities elect to provide purified drinking water for laboratory animals through reverse osmosis systems. These systems are available in floor standing stainless steel cabinets. Such extra efforts at purification can be used to remove a particular contaminant of concern to a research study or can also serve to solve a local water quality problem. Installing reverse osmosis systems can supply animals with a standardized quality of water, which is less dependent on facilities’ location.

Vivarium rooms with drainage from cage washing, room washdowns and animal waste clean ups can have their drainage into a separate interior system or it can be combined with the domestic drainage system. Vivarium drains will be non-flushing and flushing types. In some facilities, sanitary and vivaria waste will be combined outside the building in common manholes, from which a combined sewer line can extend to the wastewater treatment plant.