Animal Facility and Experimental Surgery Unit

Animal Facility and Experimental Surgery Unit

 

Head of service: Dr. Enrique Páramo Rosel.

E-mail: eparamo@sescam.jccm.es

 

 

The Animal Facility of the National Paraplegics Hospital was founded in 2002. Since then we have be growing gradually. We support all the research laboratories of the Hospital. Currently we also have an Experimental Surgery Unit.

 

 

The facility has a total area of ​​1.400 m2 and consists of a conventional animal farm and an Experimental Surgery Unit that has modern facilities with all the necessary equipment and infrastructure to carry out courses and workshops of surgery, both in animals and in cadavers, intended for medical and veterinary professionals. This unit has extensive experience in anesthesia and management of large and small animals, with around 200 research projects carried out to date.

 

 

The maximum capacity for animal housing is 8,000 rodents and 8 pigs, as well as multipurpose rooms to house any animal species. In addition, the animal facility offers its services to the researchers of our center, as well as to those of other public and private centers.

 

 

Furthermore, the facility counts with an authorized body for the assessment of research projects based on animal experimentation, which is competent in evaluating the use of all types of research animals and all types of experimental procedures that are covered by the Royal Decree (i.e.  RD53 / 2013, registered at the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha).

 

 

The tasks carried out by the animal facility are the following:

 

- Production, acquisition, supply and maintenance of experimental animals for research and teaching.

- Technical advice on the use of laboratory animals.

- Development of prophylactic community programs.

- On demand education and training in surgical procedures for all staff scientists.

- Promotion of proper treatment, handling and use of experimental animals.

-  Promotion of bioethics principles and responsible use of animals, alternative techniques and refinement of experimental procedures.
 - Creation of training courses to facilitate the achievement of the required staff category for working with experimental animals.

- There is also an Ethics Committee for Animal Experimentation responsible for assessing the suitability of animal care facility installations, as well as for optimization of experimental procedures described in research projects.

 

 

 

Installacions:

 

Animal Facility:

 

- 3 mouse housing rooms.
- 3 rat housing rooms.
- 1 multipurpose room.
- 1 transit room MRI rodents.
- 1 pig housing room.
- Rat operating room with 6 seats.
- 5 rat behavior rooms with catwalk, rotarod, electro physiology, von Frey, heat plate-cold, kunematic, etc.
- Mouse operating room with 4 posts.
- 3 mouse behavior rooms with catwalk, rotarod, activity cage, etc.
- Veterinary laboratory.
- Experimental operating room large animals, pre-operating room.
- Washing and sterilization area.
- Quarantines.
 

 

Experimental Surgery Unit:

 

- 3 operating rooms for large animals.
- Multitasking room with audiovisual and practice area.

 

 

Please, click here to know more about our fees

 

 

Personnel

 

 

Chief veterinarian:

Enrique Páramo Rosel: Veterinary in charge; BSc. in Veterinary medicine. Categories a, b, c, d, e, f.

 

Senior biologist:

Mónica Carballo Vila: PhD. in Biology. Categories b, c, d.

 

Animal caretakers category A:

Elisabet Lopez Torres. Categories a, b, c.
César Álvaro Alonso. Categories a, b, c.
Alicia Estrada Sanchez. Categories a, b, c.