The economics of laboratory animal production

Abstract

The economics of research animal production run the entire gamut from production to utilization and embrace management, distribution and financing. Since others at the Symposium have already spoken on transportation and distribution problems, the management of animal facilities, supply, demand and the raising of animals and operational methodology, the comments herein will be confined to the financial considerations inherent in the breeding of experimental animals. This paper will concern itself primarily with the costs for animal production incurred in the USA. First consideration must be given to the land on which production buildings are to be placed. In addition to the thought given to legal problems of usage and water supply and drainage, distance from markets, availability of labour and nearness of transport, one must also keep in mind the initial value of the land. More and more, the accessibility of land for animal production facilities and its cost are becoming inversely related to the distance from major cities. Because of the expensiveness of tracts of ground in or near large cities, it is frequently necessary to compensate for this cost by constructing high, multi-storey buildings which are not widely regarded as good animal production quarters. The alternative, then, is to build a one-story building (with or without a basement), spreading it out, as need dictates, over a large area of ground. This design will keep down the original expense for the land and, at the same time, provide a suitable structure for this purpose. In addition, one must take into account landscaping and tree planting, both for aesthetic reasons and in order to dampen sound. Although the facility for the housing of laboratory animals in a production colony will account for the greatest portion of the original expense, it is extremely difficult to provide cost figures since such variables as materials, labour and design change with bewildering rapidity as you travel from country to country and from one geographic area to another. The National Institutes of Health has recently renovated a building constructed in 1956 for animal breeding. Built as part of their conventional animal facilities in 1956 at a cost of $21/ft 2, it was not used as animal space, but provided temporary office accommodation for personnel until now. If, rather than being planned for conventional animals, it had been built to specifications for specific pathogen-free animals, it would have cost $25/ft 2 in 1956. In 1963, the estimated cost, a combination of original construction prices plus the addition of equipment, such as special air-conditioning and electrically interlocking doors, had risen to $32/ft'-', an increase in 7 yr of $7/ft '. The figures given are for gross area (R. S. Runkle, personal communication). Another government research institution has recently erected a series of 3-room animal buildings, completely air-conditioned. The cost was $26/ft '. Phillips (1963) has estimated the cost of infectious disease laboratories with attendant animal housing facilities at