Individually ventilated cage
An individually ventilated cage is used to keep an animal separated from other animals and possible exposures, including exposure by air.
Use
In laboratory animal husbandry, there is a huge demand for animals that have been kept in disease free conditions and housed in barrier units such as individually ventilated cages. This is very important because when animals are used for scientific research, particularly drug-related research, the animals must provide accurate and valid results. Using an animal that is ill may cause the severity limit to be exceeded. If the animal already has a disease and then undergoes experimentation of a substance that also produces effects on the animals health, it could potentially worsen the effects of the agent being tested causing the animal to experience more suffering than necessary. The animals may produce false results which may prove vital at a later stage, e.g., in drug trials on humans. Not only that, the experiment will have to be performed again and the previous animals would have ended up being killed. Special caging systems are often used alongside many other barriers to keep unwanted materials out of range of the animals.IVC system
General
The IVC-systems in which the animals are kept in ensures they are fully protected by use of HEPA-filters that defends them from all micro-organisms. A process of sterilisation of all items to be passed in to the barrier unit including bedding material, food etc. must be performed.The cages are usually made out of high tech special synthetic polycarbonates. Although this material allows various methods of sterilising and disinfecting to be carried out, repeated sterilisation can cause discolouration and brittleness.