Facility In Charge: Dr. D. Panneer, MVSc, PhD, Scientist-B
The laboratory animal house facility is registered with the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India (Reg.No. 89/GO/ReBi/S/99/CPCSEA). The facility has breeding colonies of BALB/c mice (Mus musculus), Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) and multimammate rats (Mastomys coucha). These species are used for various research studies with the approval from the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC).
Maintenance of Brugia malayi (sub-periodic) filarial parasite colony
The filarial parasite, Brugia malayi sub-periodic strain is maintained in two animal models viz., Mongolian gerbils and multimammate rats. Larval stages of the parasite (L1 to L3) are developed in Aedes aegypti (Liverpool strain) mosquitoes by feeding them on microfilaraemic blood collected from the infected animals. The infective larvae (L3) harvested from these mosquitoes are inoculated in the animal models for development to adult worms and to maintain cyclic colony of the parasite. Adults and microfilariae harvested from the animals are used for development of diagnostics and anti-filarial drugs.
