For each cock and hen, additional costs for the cage unit (€5) and animal care (€5) were assumed.
The stainless steel animal cage unit was placed in the center of the H1000 inhalation chamber and a feces/urine catch pan was placed in the chamber.
The temperature was monitored in three locations of the H1000 inhalation chamber: front door above the animal cage unit, back door below the animal cage unit and in the center using temperature probes (Rotronic Hygrometer Series 1200, Rotronic Instrument Corp., Huntington, NY).
This would enable existing rotary cage units, already successfully deployed for Ultra Low Volume (ULV) applications of insecticides, to be also used for Large Droplet Placement (LDP) application of herbicides.
The animals were housed in individual ventilated cage units (IVC-units) and had access to food and water ad libitum.
Female Nu/Nu mice (six weeks old form Harlan, Indianapolis, IN) were grouped and housed (n = 8 per cage) in sterile microisolator caging unit supplied with autoclaved Tek-Fresh bedding.
The remaining species were housed within indoor animal facilities in plastic tubs fitted with stainless steel cage tops (pocket gopher: 27.9 cm×35.6 cm×17.8 cm; vole: 20.3 cm×30.5 cm×12.7 cm; rat: 30 cm×35 cm×15 cm; three mouse species: 17 cm×26.5 cm×12 cm) or in a stacked, stainless steel caging unit (guinea pig: individual units 49 cm×55 cm×29 cm).
In this study we used 6-week-old male C57Bl/6 mice (The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME), which were held in quarantine for 12 days before the start of exposure, in an onsite, Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care accredited vivarium in poly-propylene, fiber-covered cages in HEPA-filtered Thoren caging units (Thoren Caging Systems, Inc., Hazleton, PA).
Sixteen animals per group were used, two animals were placed in one cage (=experimental unit), and each animal was allocated to the individual cages by dose group and sex in such a way that the average weight between the treatment groups was similar.
"A lot of them are cage chewers," the unit's other trainer, Richard Geraci, told me.
Every rabbit was kept in a 65 cm × 40 cm × 40 cm cage, and 400,000 units penicillin was injected into the dorsal muscle daily for three days.
