Conceptual proposal of a facility design for accommodating minipigs for pharmaceutical and radiopharmaceutical research

Abstract

The use of Animal House Facilities of IPEN-CNEN/SP (Nuclear and Energetic Research Institute—National Nuclear Energy Commission/SP, Brazil) has provided rats and mice with controlled sanitary quality for research and quality control in the production of radiopharmaceuticals lots, produced at IPEN, following rules of CONCEA—Brazilian National Council for Animal Experimentation Control and approved in CEUA (Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals), before they are sent to hospitals and clinics spread out in Brazil, for use in nuclear medicine. The production and the supply of high quality laboratory animals have fundamental importance for the accomplishment of vanguard scientific research, with reproducibility and universality. The quality of those animals depends, largely, on the available facilities for their production and lodging, to assure the demanded sanitary control and animal’s welfare, in agreement with the ethical principles that control the activity. Therefore, the facilities design is of vital importance so that the mentioned requirements can be reached. Nevertheless, pigs and miniature pigs have gained importance as large animal models in medicine. With their size, organ capacity, and physiology resembling in several aspects that of humans, pigs are well suited for preclinical experiments and long-term safety studies. Minipigs will be used for preclinical testing of radiopharmaceuticals and assays radioactive materials for cardiac tests. This paper describes the premises and preliminary activities that have been performed at IPEN for the design of new Animal House Facilities dedicated to keeping minipigs taking into account fundamental aspects such as: animal’s welfare, sanitation, genetic, in agreement with the ethical principles that control the activity and environmental concerns.