Animal House and Animal Research Facility

The Central Animal House is located within 30 meters of the main College building. It has 12 Animal rooms to house different species. Animal house staff includes 01 Technician, 02 Lab Attendants and 02 Sweepers. The Animal House is registered with CPCSEA vide Registration No: 340/GO/Re/S/01/CPCSEA. Institution has functional Institutional Animal Ethics Committee.

Woking pattern and Animal house activities

Teaching	Ø  Demonstration of dissection procedures to Post graduates students of Microbiology, anatomy and pharmacology. Ø  Standardization of biopsy procedures. Ø  Various sampling procedures, safe handling and restraining of laboratory animals. Ø  Cutting edge methodology of hands on training on lab animals to Post graduates students and minor vet lab procedures Ø  Collection and sampling of various specimens for post graduate research.
Research	Ø  Administration of various drugs to lab animals and regular monitoring for pharmacological trials. Ø  In-vitro lab animal studies and Lab animal inoculation procedures. Ø  Tissue sampling and biopsy procedures.
Extension and continued education programme	Ø  Capsule training programme on laboratory animal procedures Ø  Maintenance of different lab animals including small ruminants Ø  Supply of sheep blood to various post graduate Departments and other hospitals of valley for culture and other related studies hospitals of valley.

Routine work at Animal House

Feeding in Experimental animals (Rodents)

(Oral Gavage)

Step I: Hold the rodent in hand carefully.

Step II: Measure the tube length from the nose to the last rib of the rodent and mark it.

Step III: Give a gentle tight grip at the back of neck; so that it opens its mouth widely (if possible use any hard wooden or plastic bag)

Step IV: Push the rodent head slightly upward and back to straighten the esophagus and then from either side of teeth, insert the tube by gentle rotation to avoid the resistance.

Step V: Slowly pass the tube observing for the swallowing reflex and when desired length of tube has been inserted, inject solution with the help of a syringe.

Note: Recommended in mice and rats but not in Guineapig because they have a small palatal ostium which gets easily damaged.        Injection site and Techniques

Precautions to be taken before injection:

• Injection site to be cleaned with a suitable disinfectant/ antiseptic ( isopropyl alcohol, ethanol, spirit etc)
• Sterile syringes and needles must be used for any tip of injection.
• Always select the smallest possible gauge needle to limit tissue trauma and injection discomfort.
• Aspiration technique is always an important aspect before pushing the injection solution at the site.

Note: Aspiration is a technique of creating vacuum at the site of injection by pulling piston back to check the right placement of the needle.

                                                        Blood collection from the Experimental animals:

Purpose:

• Measure the drug concentration in various pharmacokinetic studies.
• Estimation of different biochemical or hematological parameters of a study.

Guidelines:

• Always use the technique that causes less distress, pain and discomfort to the animal.
• Collection technique should be objective oriented which include:
• How much blood is required?
• From where blood should be withdrawn.
• What may be the ideal weight of the animal?

Principles for collecting blood from an experimental Animal:

• Handle and restraint
• Needle size(determined by the diameter of vein)
• Site and location of vein
• Dilation of vein

Agents used for vasodilatation during blood   withdrawal:

• Anesthetics
• Dipping the tail into warm water
• Xylene Fentanyl/flunisone and Acetyl promazine (mainly in rabbits).

Other Services: Photography Section: The photography section of GMC and Associated hospitals has state-of-art infrastructure and is playing a significant role in projection of various academic and cultural activities being held throughout the year. The section also provides the print facility of Identity cards/Vehicle passes to students and staff of GMC and associated hospitals.

Seminar Hall: The main purpose of this section is to conduct the various interdartmental seminars and journal clubs. It is equipped with SONY® overhead projector and has seating capacity of 50 persons. The departmental library has been placed in the same section and there are round about 200 books related to the subject of pharmacology and it is also used for the reading purpose by the departmental faculty as well as PG students..

Departmental Museum: Our Department has well established museum with space of 500 Sq. ft and has 68 No. of specimens (which include various pharmaceutical dosage forms; Medicinal plants) and 49 Charts/ Diagrams (Charts pertaining to various physiological systems of the body and PK-PD drug depictions).