Aged Rodent Colonies Handbook

The restriction of the aged mouse colonies to NIA-funded grantees only is lifted as of December 1, 2010. Non-NIA-funded grantees who meet the eligibility criteria in bullet 1 can begin submitting orders for delivery December 1, 2010 and after.

1. The NIA aged rodent colonies are only available for projects that are directly related to aging and are funded by grants from the NIH, other U. S. Federal government agencies (ex., VA, CDC) or U. S. private, non-profit research foundations (ex. AHA, AFAR). This policy applies to all of the NIA aged rodent colonies, the mutant mouse aging colony and the caloric restricted rodent colony. The NIA aged rodent colonies are not available for projects funded by commercial entities including projects at universities funded by commercial entities.
2. Animals will be available for contract-funded research only if that contract research is funded by the National Institute on Aging.
3. There is currently a limit of 50 animals per grant per month. If a project requires greater than 50 animals per month, an exception may be requested but the NIA reserves the right give NIA grantees priority over requests for exceptions [requests for exceptions must be submitted before placing the order and must include the strain/sex/age/quantity needed for one delivery date and a brief (1-2 sentences) description of the aging-related project requiring the aged animals; send requests to Heidi Brogdon, rodents@nia.nih.gov. Young animals to be used as controls for old animals will be provided, but all orders will be evaluated for appropriateness of the request for the NIA colonies.
4. In order to assist investigators pursuing NIA funding, eligibility will be extended to those investigators currently lacking active support but who have had funding from the NIA within the past three years, have had unfunded applications to the NIA within the past three years, or have been supported within the past three years from an NIA grant on which they were not PI.
5. A separate price schedule (non-NIA) applies to all eligible investigators with funding from any source other than the National Institute on Aging, to reduce but not eliminate the NIA subsidy of the real cost of producing the aged rats and mice. There will be no exceptions to this schedule.

NOTICE: For orders that ship as of March 1, 2013, VA-funded investigators are no longer eligible for the NIA grantee price and must pay the non-NIA grantee price.

Orders must be placed through the online rodent ordering system (ROS) (http://arc.niapublications.org/acb/stores/1/) and ALL information must be provided in order to allow the NIA to properly evaluate eligibility. Incomplete orders will be cancelled and will have to be resubmitted as there is no way to alter orders after submission. The funding source, title and grant number refers to the funding source for the research project to use the requested animals. Do not provide the institutional accounting or animal protocol number. The funding source should be an NIH grant number and title, or the award number and title for other government funding.