Laboratory Animal Services Centre
The Laboratory Animal Services Centre. The Chinese University of Hong Kong
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ABSL-2 Facilities

LASEC provides a small area for conducting work with BSL-2 pathogens and carcinogens in small animals. Currently the facility has provisions for a BSL2 safety hood, a cytotoxic cabinet, and individually ventilated cages (IVC) suitable for housing Mice and Rats in a negative pressure environment.

Use of the facility is on the understanding that ALL procedures, including water and food provision, treatment, cage changing, and equipment and area disinfection is carried out by the individual user of the facility. LASEC will provide clean autoclaved IVC cages but it will be the responsibility of the user to double-bag used cages and equipment for autoclaving. The use of the facility will be charged on both agistment charging per IVC cage in use, as well as cage cleaning and autoclaving charges and utilities usage.

It will be the responsibility of individual supervisors to ensure that their staff/students are adequately trained and are competent in experiments involving Risk Group-2 pathogens, cytotoxic agents, and animals.

Before approval is given the following criteria must be met:

  1. Written approval from the University Safety Office. 
The approval MUST state the location where the work is approved for, the pathogen that has been approved, and its use in animals is approved. The safety office must also list the necessary precautions for the work to be conducted and how decontamination of the surfaces and the animal carcasses should be performed.

2. Approval from the University Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee, detailing the procedures to be conducted, the pathogen used and the species of animal to be used.

3. Each staff/student entering the facility will need to provide a copy of their Department of Health license to conduct animal experiments. The license MUST be specific for the type of work to be conducted.

4. Students or staff should provide evidence of having attended the University Biosafety Course (or suitable alternative) before access is given.

5. A full detailed SOP protocol of the procedures to be performed, the safety procedures in place, and the decontamination and animal disposal mechanism. Plus Material Safety data Sheet (MSDS) for all the agents used.


LASEC staff will provide a brief introduction to the facilities before use to ensure that the users fully understand the procedures in place. Use of the facility is also on a first-come, first-serve basis due to limited space.


ABSL-2 Application
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