Genetically Engineered Models: Use of a 2D Barcode Mini Tag for Identification of Mice in an Automated Colony Management System
Posted on November 1, 2023
The 2023 National AALAS (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science) conference held last week in Salt Lake City brought together the experts in the field of laboratory animal science. Among some of the stellar presentations during the tech talk, one that shone particularly bright was by Steve Sansing (Sr. Client Portfolio Manager) at Charles River Laboratories, a global leader providing support and services to the life science industries. During this presentation, Steve would proceed to demonstrate how Charles River utilized RapID Lab’s Mini Tags to revolutionize and automate their animal workflows.
Key Takeaways from the Presentation
Charles River’s presentation offered valuable insights into how they’ve successfully leveraged RapID Lab’s unique product to optimize and streamline their colony management system. Some key highlights include:
- Efficiency and Automation: The unique identification that is encrypted for each tag provides traceability of animal use through 2D scanning across all touch points. The multiple colors are also used as a secondary visualization allowing for time savings in identifying animals for shipment, mating, cage moves, and euthanasia.
- Data Management: With the integration of RapID Tags into their Internet Colony Management (ICM) system, there have been no animal identification issues or reduction of cohort deliveries due to incorrect animal ID and readability of other identification methods such as ear notching, tail tattooing and toe clipping . This leads to maintaining high-quality records, and enables better animal welfare due to co-housing of animals of various genotypes as animals will no longer need to be separated due to genotype during shipment.
- Data Sharing: Cage cards can now be generated which include both the RapID Tag ID along with the color of the tags as its secondary identification. Having the color noted on the card provides immediate identification and can be used to separate animals quickly upon receipt.
Access the Full Presentation
For those eager to dive deeper into the details of how Charles River has integrated RapID Tags into their very own ICM for improved processes and workflows, we’re pleased to provide a link to download the full Charles River presentation. Simply click on the link below to download the PDF and gain a comprehensive understanding of this trailblazing partnership: