Air Handling with Humidity Control

Relative humidity has a significant effect on the health of the rodents

The European convention for the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes, ETS 123 specifies a relative humidity of 55% ±10 inside cages for rodents.

Especially during the winter, it can be a real challenge to meet these guidelines and it might affect the health of the animals, the breeding performance and the reproducibility of your research. Mice without fur and pups in particular should be protected from fluctuations in the relative humidity.

ScanClime is an air handling unit that gives you a very accurate, flexible and affordable control of the relative air humidity.

• Relative air humidity better than ±3% at any setting between 45% and 65% for enhanced reproducibility of animal research
• Consistent relative air humidity all year round in IVCs or Scantainers for optimum animal health
• Full compliance with legislation/guidelines for relative air humidity for husbandry
• Stand-alone air handling units for maximum flexibility in design and use of animal facilities
• Substantial energy savings compared to humidification at room level
• Reduced build or refurbishment costs
• HEPA filtration of air after humidification/dehumidification for maximum protection against contamination
• Available with ScanEye providing online adjustment, monitoring and full documentation of settings and data logging
• Performance is independent of mineral content/conductivity of local water supply. Available in versions for use with RO-water or tap water
• Humidification of air without generation of ultrasound
• Optional holder for health monitoring of air being returned from IVCs using Interceptor from Tecniplast
• Applied by numerous animal facilities at leading universities and pharmaceutical companies

Brochure

Studies point towards that relative humidity may impact breeding of rodents, aggression in male mice and skin condition of the animals. Get an overview of our current scientific collaborations investigating the effects of controlled relative humidity on animal welfare and reproducibility of data

Major et al. 2019: Pre-weaning mortality of mice housed in individually ventilated cages with and without controlled humidity

This study describes how fluctuating relative humidity, even within guidelines, has significant affect on the animals' water intake. ScanClime provides a very accurate relative humidity for studies, where water intake is considered to be an important parameter

See a list of scientific papers describing how relative humidity affects the health of rodents and thereby potentially reproducibility of animal research

Correct relative humidity requires a substantial amount of energy and water - this is the reason why

Are you curious to know how you can use ScanClime to optimize, monitor and document the environment inside your IVCs and ScanTainers?