Author: APCF

Equipment Validation

 

Performance of equipment is assured by 1) contracted preventive maintenance services and 2)  regular validation by outcome measurement (list as following).

Animal Drinking Water Supplying Systems

Membrane filtration of water and culture for heterologous plate count, coliform count, and Pseudomonous aeruginosacount

Rack Washer and Bottle Washer

Microbiological or ATP load on washed items (e.g. cages and water bottles)

Temperature logging

Steam sterilizers

Bioindicator and temperature logging

Vaporised hydogen peroxide decontamination chamber (coming soon)

Bioindicator

Animal Transfer Stations

CFU count on settle plates, air flow pattern test and HEPA filter leak test (coming soon)

Life supporting system for Individually Ventilated Cage

Daily equipment inspection

Veterinary Consultation

Please contact Dr. Anthony JAMES (Director), Dr. Claudette GARINGAN (Veterinarian Technician) and Dr. Peter EGUIA (Veterinarian Technician) for veterinary consultations

  • Usage of drugs (e.g. anesthetic, analgesic and tranquilizer) for specific research purpose
  • Treatment on sick animals
  • Surgical procedures and training
  • Developing experimental protocol
  • Determination of endpoint on animals in moribund
  • Preventive medicine
  • Pain management

 

 

AN UNHEALTHY SKEPTICISM ABOUT ANIMAL GRIEF

The world has been transfixed over the past several weeks by the spectacle of a mother orca whale carrying her dead infant through the icy waters of the Salish Sea, keeping the infant afloat as best she could, and persisting for more than 17 days in one of the most protracted displays of cetacean grieving ever recorded by marine scientists.

Despite the openness with which the media has talked about Taulequah’s grief, skepticism about animal grief and other emotions is alive and well, even among scientists. Many of the reports about grieving behavior will use scare quotes around “grief” to suggest that animals like Taulequah only look as if they are grieving. Zoologist Jules Howard, for example, wrote in The Guardian a couple of days ago, “if you believe J35 was displaying evidence of mourning or grief, you are making a case that rests on faith not on scientific endeavor.” I find myself increasingly impatient with this kind of response to animal suffering. Read More… (By Jessica Pierce, Psychology Today, 16Aug2018)

THIS IS THE MOST COMPLETE BRAIN MAP TO DATE

Mapping the human brain in detail could help to unlock some of its mysteries, but our own brains are such amazingly intricate organs that we’re going to be waiting a while for that to happen. Still, scientists just took an important step towards that goal.

A team has just created a high-definition, 3D picture of something a little smaller – the brain of a fruit fly. Showing every single one of the brain’s 100,000 neurons, it’s the most complete brain map ever created.

(Science Alert)

EARTH’S RESOURCES CONSUMED IN EVER GREATER DESTRUCTIVE VOLUMES

Study says the date by which we consume a year’s worth of resources is arriving faster.

Humanity is devouring our planet’s resources in increasingly destructive volumes, according to a new study that reveals we have consumed a year’s worth of carbon, food, water, fibre, land and timber in a record 212 days.

As a result, the Earth Overshoot Day – which marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate – has moved forward two days to 1 August, the earliest date ever recorded.

To maintain our current appetite for resources, we would need the equivalent of 1.7 Earths, according to Global Footprint Network, an international research organisation that makes an annual assessment of how far humankind is falling into ecological debt.

(The Guardian)