White, M. 2019. Pro’s and pro’s of selective cleaning. Animal Technology and Welfare 18(2), 121-126.

The Kathleen Lonsdale Building (KLB), is a high specification, high health status animal facility that is a full IVC facility with an integral quarantine section. It houses transgenic (TG) mice, inbred, outbred and immuno-suppressed mice and occasionally rats and hamsters. The reasons we decided to investigate included improving animal welfare with less disturbance to the cage through reduced cleaning and with a 60% increase in bedding, the ability for the mice to show some natural behaviours such as tunnelling, foraging and digging. We also wanted to work ‘leanly’, save the College money in product and labour time and create time for our technicians to do other things and provide much needed planned preventative maintenance on IVC racks and cages. Time did not allow this with the current system of cleaning. Of course, we were aware that reduced cleaning may increase ammonia levels in the cage so we assessed the environment of the IVC during the study with ammonia detectors to ensure cleaning took place at >25ppm but never exceeded >50ppm which could damage the nasopharynx regions of our mice. In conclusion, new regime has allowed: cleaning out reduced by approximately 66%; increased technician time [for other activities]; reduced bedding use by 26%; reduced capital equipment use by 40%; reduced ammonia levels.