This chapter reviews the essential principles of medical management of rat colonies and diagnostic methods to identify infectious diseases of rats. rat populations all together. Topics consist of specific pet monitoring and treatment, signs of illness and distress, colony health management, components of microbiological monitoring programs, including agents commonly targeted and sentinel programs, quarantine, biological material screening, diagnostic testing methodologies, including culture, serology, molecular diagnostic and histopathology, test profiles and interpretation, management of disease outbreaks, and treatment and prevention strategies for infectious CACNA1D agents. rats) may manifest signs of disease from agents that are clinically silent in immunocompetent animals housed in the same area. Although the overall health status of most institutional rat colonies is monitored by routine screening of asymptomatic animals, it is important to realize that daily individual animal observation can sometimes identify an index case of a newly introduced disease that has not yet been revealed via routine scheduled testing. B. Signs of Illness and Distress Abnormal physical findings in rodents are not always useful in localizing an illness to a specific organ system. A very common constellation of findings indicative of pain, distress, or disease can be piloerection, reduced activity, an ungroomed appearance, and frequently a hunched position (National Study Council, 1992). Chromodacryorrhea (reddish colored staining and crusting across the eyes) can be an build up of porphyrin-containing secretions that’s sometimes connected with illness due to increased production because of tension or disease as well as decreased self-grooming behavior due to distress. Weight loss is another nonspecific finding, but since weight determination is a simple, rapid, objective, and noninvasive technique, it is commonly used to assess the general health status of an animal placed under observation. It should be realized that stress is not always manifested as an absolute weight loss in a growing animal, so it may be necessary to take into account the normal weight gain of young rats to document a variation. Table?11.1 describes signs of illness that can be seen in rats, along with possible diagnoses. This list is not meant to be an exhaustive summary, but it includes some of the more common clinical signs and suggests potential differential diagnoses. Table?11.1 Physical Findings. (formerly CAR bacillus), infectionOverheatingFacial swellingsParotid and/or submandibular salivary gland swelling from coronavirus infectionAbscess of lymph nodes (lymphadenitis)Zymbal gland tumor at the base of the earAbdominal distension (pot-bellied appearance)AscitesIntestinal distension from toxicity (chloral hydrate)Enteritis (possibly megaloileitis associated with Tyzzer’s disease)ObesityAbdominal mass (tumor, abscess)PregnancyExcessively wet hair coat and/or beddingDiabetic polyuriaLeaking bottle or automatic water systemBehavioral water wastage from playingOverheatingEye lesionsBlepharospasm, corneal opacities, keratitis due to coronaviral infectionCataracts (aging lesion) Open in MT-802 a separate window C. Treatment of Disease The majority of drugs administered to laboratory rats are provided prophylactically (for example, as part of perioperative care) or as a direct element of the research research. Because both disease condition and the usage of xenobiotics (antibiotics, analgesics, antiinflammatory real estate agents, etc.) make a difference the physiology of pets in a manner that can be difficult to regulate inside the experimental style and may invalidate a report (Lipman and Perkins, 2002), sick rats are euthanized instead of treated frequently. However, the problem surrounding MT-802 the event should be thoroughly thought to determine whether it’s prudent to assemble suitable antemortem diagnostic examples and to post the carcass for necropsy evaluation actually if the pet can be euthanized. Likewise, an activity to monitor pet mortality records also to perform necropsy on pets whose death can be suspicious is fairly important, because in some instances this evaluation makes it possible for early detection of the problem that in any other case would reoccur MT-802 and finally affect a much bigger group of pets. In some circumstances, it definitely is useful to deal with individual pets or larger organizations if the pets are considered beneficial to a continuing study or are not being used to generate sensitive data. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to describe particular pharmaceutical dosages and treatment indications, but the reader can be directed elsewhere in this volume for disease-specific recommendations. Well-referenced and comprehensive formularies that include rat-specific drug dosages are also available, written for veterinarians in both the laboratory animal and exotic pet specialties (Carpenter and Marion, 2017, Hawk et?al., 2005). When bloodwork is indicated for diagnosis of a rat health issue, small-volume sample collection and automated analyzers can provide useful data. However, dilution of samples should be done only when such methods have been validated, because dilution does not always result in predictably proportional outcomes (Johns et?al., 2018, Moorhead et?al., 2016). III.?Colony Wellness Management A..