Brian E. Gillman, Kenneth B. Shapiro, Bruce W. Kennedy
Long before the Animal Welfare Act, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals , and the myriad of other regulations pertaining to research with animals, there was a recognition of the need to clean and disinfect facilities to maintain a sanitary and controlled environment. In the early years, animal caging sanitation was primitive, more like “barn maintenance,” but over the last half-century, it has progressed to the use of specialized chemicals to clean equipment and surfaces in order to rid the laboratory animal facility of potentially harmful microorganisms. A solid sanitation program is the essence of good animal care and good research. As science progresses, lab animal professionals must be increasingly vigilant in maintaining a sanitary, controlled environment to produce reliable and reproducible research, while constantly considering cost, efficiency, quality control, and safety to both people and animals. In this chapter, we will provide the lab animal professional with the chemical products, processes, and applications important in maintaining a clean laboratory animal environment.