The CRIUCPQ-ULaval animal facility, designed on two floors to structure its activities, meets the highest housing standards for small and large animal species. It has a specific-pathogen-free (SPF) health status. A team of qualified animal health technicians and animal care workers ensure the well-being of the animals on a daily basis.
The animal supply facility has a Certificate of Good Animal Practice from the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) and is under Université Laval’s Veterinary Services (DSV). All animal use must be pre-approved by the Animal Care Committee at Université Laval (CPAUL) (Frenh only).
Equipment and Services
Depending on the health status of the animals and the nature of the activities, the projects taking place in the animal supply facility are directed to one of two distinct sectors.
Premium sector
This sector is primarily dedicated to the housing of our SPF rodent breeding colonies as well as to the activities of our Microbiota Platform. The Premium Sector has a housing capacity of 4,000 rodent cages.
Services available for the Premium Sector:
Management of murine colonies
- Breeding
- Birth validation and newborn care
- Weaning and genotyping
- Cryopreservation, rederivation and in vitro fertilization services
Services available for the Microbiota Platform
- Delivery of projects on axenic and gnotobiotic models
- Quality control department
Experimental Sector
The experimental sector is divided into two parts allowing a versatile layout of the different technological platforms, according to the needs of the research projects, taking into account the health status of the animals involved.
SPF Area
This section dedicated to the housing of rodents has a reception capacity for 4,000 cages in addition to counting on an important quantity of platforms.
Equipment and services available in the SPF area:
- A surgical unit (four fully equipped stations)
- Class II biosafety cabinets
- Metabolic cages
- Calorimetry cages
- A laminar flow hood
- A biological irradiator
- Versatile procedure rooms
- A necropsy room with a suction table
- A containment level 2 zone
- Technical services (surgery, anesthesia, injection, sampling, gavage, data acquisition, etc.)
- Medical imaging systems
- A DVC system (housing connected to a real-time electronic monitoring system)
- Systems for hypoxia (OxyCycler and ProOx 110)
- Systems for measuring the pulmonary function
- Systems for measuring the blood pressure
Non-SPF Area
The non-EOPS area is capable of accommodating many large species such as: sheep, pigs and dogs. It also has an amphibian housing system comprising multiple basins as well as spaces for rodents from non-approved sources.
Equipment and services available in the non-SPF area:
- A surgical unit for large species
- Capacity to house simultaneously 18 animals of large species
- Experimental Cardiac Catheterization and Intervention Laboratory (CathLab Platform) (LIER page CathLab)
- Medical Imaging Platform (MRI, CT, DXA) (LIER: advanced-imaging-platform)
- Technical services (surgical assistance, anesthesia, injection, sampling, data acquisition, etc.)
- Rodent quarantine
Service Request
For any further information or service request, please contact us at the following address: animalerie@criucpq.ulaval.ca.
For all inquiries concerning the Animal Care Committee at Université Laval (CPAUL), please write to cpaul2@vrr.ulaval.ca.
Fees
For any request related to the tariffs for services provided by the animal supply facility, please contact us at the following address: animalerie@criucpq.ulaval.ca.
