Effect of air humidity deviations on the health of laboratory animals

DOI: 10.29296/2618723X-2021-04-07

E.D. Bondareva, Head of the Biosafety Group, ORCID 0000-0002-7170-9717,

S.V. Gushchina, validation and statistics specialist, ORCID 0000-0002-0247-0378,

V.A. Berezkin, veterinarian, ORCID 0000-0002-5557-1287

Research and manufacturing company «Home оf Pharmacy»,
188663, Russia, Leningrad oblast, Vsevolozhskiy district, Kuzmolovskiy t.s., Zavodskaya st. 3-245
E-mail: [email protected]

Keywords: laboratory animals microclimate humidity laboratory animal health animal health monitoring
For citation:

Bondareva E.D. , Gushchina S.V., Berezkin V.А. Effect of air humidity deviations on the health of laboratory animals. Laboratory Animals for Science. 2021; 4. https://doi.org/10.29296/2618723X-2021-04-07

Abstract

Too low or too high humidity can affect the physical condition and health of laboratory animals, and cause various diseases. For example, low relative humidity can lead to dryness of the mucous membrane of the eyes, skin diseases, and high relative humidity increases the risk of heat stroke.

However, today there are no specific reviews on the effect of humidity on the health of laboratory animals, on the basis of which the requirements of state standards for the maintenance of laboratory animals could be considered justified.

It is important to consider changes in microclimate and risks associated with relative humidity.

Goal of the work is to find the presence or absence of high and low humidity influence on the health and welfare of laboratory animals, to optimize favorable microclimate parameters and to assess the criticality of the requirements of regulatory enactments to the conditions of keeping laboratory animals.

The humidity in the rooms was measured using psychometric hygrometers VIT-1 and VIT-2, the temperature and humidity of the atmospheric air were recorded using meteorological Internet resources. The measurements were carried out for one year.

Veterinarians examined the animals daily for activity, fatness, skin color, coat condition, condition of mucous membranes, etc.

According to the results of the study, it was revealed that during the change of seasons in a calendar year and, as a consequence, the alternation of high and low humidity, deviations from the standards of permissible humidity parameters do not have a negative effect on the health and welfare of laboratory animals.

Full text avaliable in Russain only 

Acknowledgements

The study was performed without external funding.

Author’s Contribution

E.D. Bondareva – idea, supervised the project, literary data collection, data analysis, writing of the text
S.V. Gushchina – data analysis, statistical data processing, editing of the text
V.A. Berezkin – veterinarian report

 

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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