Shipment of Animals
The objective of maintaining the aged rodent colonies is to provide animals for aging research that are in good health, while maintaining the characteristics of aging animals. Therefore, the best-looking animals are not selected for shipping; rather, animals are selected at random. This means, particularly for older animals, that you may get some "scruffy" looking animals or animals exhibiting common conditions of aging such as small tumors, cataracts, loss of hair, stiffness of limbs, etc. Tumors, in particular, are commonplace in older rodents. These conditions do not constitute a justification for order replacement. If an experimental protocol requires animals to be free of such conditions, it is the user’s responsibility to order enough animals to allow for the selection of preferred animals. A request may be placed for “No Tumors” or “No Cataracts” in the order form but that will only apply to visible tumors or cataracts. It will not guarantee that small tumors or cataracts will not be present in the animals shipped.
All animals are shipped only with their cage-mates. The crates used to ship from Charles River can be separated into three compartments, depending on what is being shipped. Only animals of the same age and sex and barrier of origin are shipped in the same crate, regardless of the use compartments. The crates hold a maximum of 12 mice or 6 rats, but the number might be lower and is determined by the age(s), sex(es), and originating cage configuration of the animals to ship.
Note: Shipments of animals made by environmentally controlled trucks are not affected by weather except during severe storms. However, periods of high or low temperature make the air shipment of aged animals extremely risky. Animals exposed to hot or cold loading docks and airplane holds are likely to suffer temperature stress or even die. During such weather conditions, the NIA will not ship animals by air and the requesters will be notified of the delay in delivery.