Hot weather shipping guidelines

With summer rapidly approaching, we have established guidelines for hot weather to ensure animal welfare during air shipments. Please note that these guidelines will not impact our clients in WA, as the animals will be transferred exclusively between air-conditioned rooms and air-conditioned vehicles.

For interstate shipments, at 9:00 AM Perth time, if the predicted 9:00 PM Perth airport temperature is greater than or equal to 29 °C, shipments will be dispatched the next suitable day. Likewise, if the predicted temperature at 9:00 AM at the destination or connecting airport is greater than or equal to 29 °C, shipments will be postponed to a given airport or destination until the next suitable day. Decisions on weather forecasts are based on https://weather.com and https://www.bom.gov.au/.

Customers can request a delay before 9:00 AM AWST on the day of dispatch if they are concerned about high temperatures by emailing arc@ozgene.com or by calling 08 9212 2255.

Health reports

The remaining health reports have now been published on our website for our rat area (Oz4) and BALB/c area (Oz5). Please note that the Oz4 report confirms the presence of two commensals that have carried over from previous ARC operations:

• Klebsiella Oxytoca is a tolerated commensal and will not stop shipping.
• Staphylococcus Aureous is a non-tolerated commensal and will not stop shipping but efforts will be made to exclude it.

This outcome potentially impacts all stock rat and custom rat strains, with the exception of CBH nudes, which are housed in our Oz1 immunocompromised area. None of the mouse areas are affected. Staff must adhere to movement restrictions based on vivarium status, including a 60-hour exclusion period from Oz4 to all other areas.

We apologise if this affects your research and will keep you updated as we investigate measures to address this issue. Our rat barrier status is still under consideration, but currently it aligns with the pathogen-free criteria according to FELASA guidelines. For any inquiries and concerns, please contact our Senior Veterinary Surgeon, Dr. Chris Cooper, at ccooper@ozgene.com.

Operating through the holidays

Ozgene ARC will remain open during the December and January holiday season, and animal shipments will continue with the exception of public holidays. Both JetPets and Ozgene ARC will have limited staff available to process and ship orders during the days between Christmas and New Year if necessary.

Animal availability snapshot

In our last newsletter, we shared the total colony sizes for each strain. Here we provide the number of currently available animals on the ordering portal. Please note that this number changes constantly based on animals weaned and purchased.

Most strains are nearing their full capacity, however, there is a significant demand with many animals being purchased immediately after they are listed due to previous stock shortages, such as C57BL/6J females. We expect that the supply and demand will balance out once these outstanding orders have been placed. Additionally, we are currently working on a ‘pre-orders’ functionality on the ordering portal, which will allow you to reserve animals.

As always, if you anticipate upcoming orders where the supply may not meet your demand, please inform us as soon as possible so that we can adjust colony sizes if necessary.

New home for Ozgene ARC

We are aiming to vacate the former Animal Resources Centre premises on the Murdoch University campus in the first half of 2024. We are pleased to inform you that we have secured a new permanent location for Ozgene ARC in the Technology Park in Bentley, near Curtin University. This site is within walking distance of Ozgene’s existing facility and represents an exciting milestone that will allow the two sites to unite in Technology Park. We have a significant task ahead of us in retrofitting the site to serve as a Vivarium and we will continue to provide progress reports as we move forward.

Digitisation & IVC update

As announced in our previous newsletter, all animals have now been digitally entered into our Geneoz Vivarium Management System and all mice have been moved to individually ventilated cages (IVCs). We continue our work to reconfigure the rat areas to accommodate the new IVC racks. We will keep you updated on the progress.