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A quality assurance program in the Diagnostic Laboratory of the Central Animal Care facility of
Memorial University of Newfoundland has been in operation since December 1991. The
program consists mostly of the health monitoring and disease surveillance of all animals housed
in the facility.
The program is run by a registered medical laboratory technologist and its purpose is to guarantee
the integrity of the research data while strictly adhering to the CCAC guidelines on ensuring the
well being of research animals.
To evaluate the health status among animals, the basic diagnostic assessments are done in the
disciplines of bacteriology, parasitology, mycology, serology, hematology and histopathology.
To do this, the control animals, called sentinels, are placed in selected animal rooms along with
the general population, and are periodically checked on their health through various tests or
necropsy examinations. The laboratory technologist is constantly in contact with a network of
the research professionals and informs them on the results of the health monitoring, and calls
researchers for discussion. Decisions on the treatment or euthanasia of animals are made after
the mutual agreement between the Director of Animal Care Services and researchers in charge.
In addition to the tests performed in-house, samples and occasionally live animals are sent to
reference laboratories, such as the Charles River Canada Laboratories and Armand-Frappiere
Institute, Quebec or Veterinary College, Prince Edward Island, for more detailed analysis.
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