Optimizing the rearing environment of laboratory animal facility used for advanced medical and pharmaceutical researches
	Control and management systems for laboratory animal facilities provided in a package through combination of our technologies
	Profile of the Client

In the field of medical and pharmaceutical researches and development, a wide variety of highly advanced technologies for life science are more and more demanded. Following this trend, to be able to keep up with demands from laboratories in these fields, CLEA Japan, Inc. has developed its expertise in laboratory animals used for medical and pharmaceutical researches since a half century ago. CLEA Japan is now engaged in the sales of high quality laboratory animals, their feed, and original newly-devised equipments, as well as animal experiments by commissioning. Fujinomiya Engineering Service Center was built on the basis of CLEA Japan's long experience and professional expertise. "This facility has a *BS holding system (*BS = Barrier System), which we are the most skilled for, as the core system and in addition is equipped with vinyl isolators that are used for more effective control of microorganisms and also with BioBubble systems that are easy-to-build dependent clean room systems. It is the first, large-scale clean animal experiment facility in Japan that can undertake so wide ranging animal experiments. I am sure that there are not so many parallels in the world." (Mr. Taguchi Fukushi, President, CLEA Japan, Inc.)

©CLEA Japan, Inc. Scrupulous management using double barriers with BioBubble clean rooms set up within a barrier system of the lab Oral administration experiment in their barrier system

With growing sophistication of medicine and pharmacy, there have been increasing needs for laboratory animals with higher reliability and accuracy. To meet the demands, for instance, we built up a system to preserve frozen embryos of newly bred important pedigrees to be thawed on demand and transferred to recipient animals to have them give birth to and suckle babies, and thus we are able to provide animals having uniform features born on a same day. For this process different levels of cleanness are required for respective phases; the cleanest environment is required for rearing of recipient animals, and the required levels of cleanness gradually decline from transfer of embryo, through delivery of babies, to nursing. For such a facility, it is critical to preclude the escape of the air from lower-level cleanness areas into higher-level cleanness areas. To optimally control the environment that needs highly precise management, Yamatake's Critical Environment System was adopted.

"The air in the laboratory constantly flows from cleaner areas to less clean areas to prevent backflows of the contaminated air. But it is essential to maintain the airflow in a stable manner. Yamatake's Critical Environment System has served to ensure the stable airflow with high precision." (Mr. Fumihiro Mochizuki, Deputy Director, Engineering Section, CLEA Japan, Inc.)Yamatake's system with manifold type ducting is also has the strong effect of energy saving compared with other types of ventilation system, as Yamatake's system can perform ventilation highly efficiently through sub-ducts which branch from a main ducts and are connected to individual facilities, by controlling the airflow in the sub-ducts in a sophisticated way according to the operational conditions of the respective facilities so that it can maintain the high levels of cleanness of the air.

"We have to protect the rats and mice entrusted by our clients, which have invaluable properties, from contamination with pathogens, to grow them as clean as possible. We had to fully understand the mechanism of the whole system, so as to quickly respond in an emergency. That was why we learned much about the system through consultations with engineers from Yamatake while letting them know our needs. Their meticulous attention to the design of the system and kind, detailed explanations have helped us much in the maintenance of the system." (Mr. Kiyotaka Tsuchihashi, Chief, Fuji Rearing Farm, CLEA Japan, Inc.)

Various kinds of data such as the trend data collected by the system also help them in maintenance and improvement of the environment of the animal laboratory.

"In order to set up the facility, I moved from the section of experiments in commissioning and was appointed to take charge of system engineering. By using Yamatake's Critical Environment System and their security system introduced in tandem, I have come to appreciate the real virtue of their products of high quality and usability." (Mr. Yosiyuki Morikawa, Chief, Engineering Section, CLEA Japan, Inc.)

With the idea of widely providing their expertise at request of researchers in the fields of medicine and pharmaceutical studies, this facility has hosted laboratory tours many times.

"Fujinomiya Engineering Service Center also serves as a showcase of our most advanced laboratory animal facilities. We expect much help of Yamatake's highly reliable technology in developing new facilities for our future clients." (Mr. Taguchi, President)

This report was originally published in the August 2006 issue of Yamatake Group's
external house organ titled 'Savemation'.

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