THE VIVARIUM

The animal research facility of the Institute of Radiobiology, the Vivarium, is located in a standard brick building, equipped with the uncontrolled and controlled air ventilation systems, and connected with the centralized utility networks. With a total floor space of 296 square meters, the Vivarium accommodates six animal housing rooms for mice and rats, a sanitary inspection room, feed storeroom, feed kitchen, amenity space and utility rooms. The animals are provided with a high-quality feedstuffs and utmost treatment and care by the staff of the Vivarium.

In accordance with the occupational health and safety requirements, the staff of the Vivarium is supplied with the necessary personal lab wear and shoes, and proper means of protection and disinfection. Hand disinfectants are placed in every animal housing room, feed kitchen, washing and disinfection room, health assessment and imaging rooms.

In its work, the Vivarium follows guidelines and requirements outlined in the Sanitary Rules and Norms on the Establishment, Equipment and Maintenance of Experimental Biological Clinics (Vivariums), adopted on 31 Oct 2006 by the Decree No. 131 of the Chief Public Health Officer of the Republic of Belarus, and best practices in the industry.

OUR ANIMALS

The Wistar Rat

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  • Coat Color: White (albino)
  • Body Weight (adult animal): 200 – 600 grams
  • Sexual Maturity: 60 – 70 days
  • Pregnancy: 21 – 23 days
  • Littre Size: 6 – 12 pups

The Wistar rat is the most famous outbred rat strand, which most of the present-day strains of laboratory rats have derived from. It is the most popular line of rats used in laboratory research nowadays. They are characterised by a wider head, long ears and a tail length that is always shorter than body length.

Research Applications: general purposes, toxicology, carcinogenesis, diet-associated health issues, standardization of hormonal drugs, studies of infectious diseases.

The Af Mouse

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  • Coat Color: White (albino)
  • Body Weight (adult animal): 15 – 60 grams
  • Sexual Maturity: 30 – 35 days
  • Pregnancy: 19 – 21 days
  • Littre Size: 5 – 12 pups
  • Letters per Year: 4 – 9 litters

The Af is a highly cancerous substrain characterized by the emergence of spontaneous body and lung tumours in intact mice, the number of which increases with age and under the influence of mutagenic and carcinogenic factors.

The C57BL/6 Mouse

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  • Coat Color: Black
  • Body Weight (adult animal): 15 – 60 grams
  • Sexual Maturity: 30 – 35 days
  • Pregnancy: 19 – 21 days
  • Littre Size: 5 – 12 pups
  • Letters per Year: 4 – 9 litters

The C57BL/6, also referred to as “C57 Black 6”, or simply “Black”, is an inbred mouse strain characterized by advantageous easy breeding and robustness. The C57BL/6 strain was the first mouse species to have its entire genome sequenced in 2005, second-ever after the human genome.

The C57BL/6 is most widely used in three major areas: a) as a physiological and pathological model in in vivo experiments, b) for creating transgenic mouse models, and c) for generating spontaneous and induced mutations.

The BALB/c Mouse

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  • Coat Color: White (albino)
  • Body Weight (adult animal): 15 – 60 grams
  • Sexual Maturity: 30 – 35 days
  • Pregnancy: 19 – 21 days
  • Littre Size: 3 – 12 pups
  • Letters per Year: 4 – 9 litters

BALB/c mice are well known for their training ability. Their brain size is bigger than the brain size of other mouse strains. These mice are very emotional and vulnerable, and barely cope with any kind of stress. Existing experimental studies show that albino mice are quite docile and will rarely fight other mice, and they would avoid any dosages of alcohol.

Research applications of BALB/c mice are vast and encompass almost every biomedical area where laboratory mice are used in search of the answers. They are highly sensitive to the effects of ionizing radiation. Urethan induces tumours in both female and male mice.

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