Newsletter IBF University of Heidelberg, 4th quarter 2017

General

Dear Users of the IBF,

the year has moved into the last quarter, autumn is at the door and we also have news for you that we would like to share:

Construction work

At the end of November, two of our barrier staff ducts are going to be upgraded with so-called "air showers". The work is expected to take about 4 weeks. Unfortunately due to the work there is going to be noise and vibrations. However we are going to try to keep the discomfort for the animals at a minimum.

Adaptation of course fee

For quite some time now, we were able to keep the course fee stable. Unfortunately we will have to adapt it in the near future. That means the course fee is going to increase by a few percent.

 

Animal welfare

Biopsies

The tail biopsy is a notifiable animal experiment. The IBF therefore has a respective permit for all animals bred within the framework of its §11 permit that have to be genotyped. Work groups who have their own breeding permits for breeding of burdened animals are covered by that. Use of ear punch tissue for genotyping is not notifiable, if the ear punching is "done with the intent of identifying the animal and the produced tissue can be used for genotyping purposes".
Animals that are subjected to a tail biopsy have to be registered as experimental animals as per current legislation. This led to a masive increase in the number of experimental animals in the last two years at Heidelberg university. We would like to advise you therefore to generally use ear punch tissue for genotyping and tail tissue only in exceptional cases, due to the aforementioned and animal welfare reasons. Should you have general questions regarding the methodology (for example the solution volume for lysis has to be reduced), Ms. Wirth, PhD and and Mr. Gernsheimer of the pharmacology department have agreed to be contact persons regarding that. As each workgroup normally have their own solutions for preparation and lysis and genotypings can be sensitive to alterations as well, specialized answers and support cannot be provided.