The DCM Isoflurane Vaporizer Training is a hands-on wet lab designed to teach students how to identify and correctly attach non-rebreathing tubing to a vaporizer machine, induce a mouse or rat using an inhalant anesthetic, maintain a mouse or rat at a surgically appropriate plane of anesthesia, appropriately monitor the animal’s vitals during anesthesia, and properly recover the animal after the procedure. This hands-on wet lab is required for those needing to be certified in inhalational anesthesia with a vaporizer. Alternatively, training and certification may be provided through a certified proficient Laboratory Animal Coordinator (LAC).

Prerequisites:

1. DCM Mouse or Rat Handling and Techniques Class OR certification in multiple rodent techniques by an LAC
2. Current IACUC Orientation, DCM Orientation, and Animal Handler forms: https://acap.research.unc.edu/iacuc_reg/index.cfm
3. Online EHS/DCM Training (linked below)

Mice that are listed under the DCM Training protocol and are currently housed in Mary Ellen Jones will be utilized for this technique. You do not need to provide your own animal(s) for this purpose. BSL2/cubicle spaces and return room animals are not used for training with this technique. All other supplies for this training will be provided by DCM.

The course material is available for downloading and referencing under the URL. Please note, the PDF slide show has several videos that are helpful to review. In order to enable these videos you will need to download the PDF and view from there. (You must review this information prior to training):

https://research.unc.edu/comparative-medicine/training/

For security purposes, access to this material is restricted to personnel already approved on an IACUC protocol. Contact DCMTraining@unc.edu if you need assistance.

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: Because our hands-on training techniques do not allow for maintenance of a 6-foot distance between trainer and trainee, we have adapted our PPE requirements during the pandemic. All students must bring a face shield and conventional mask OR an N-95 mask for use during the class. If you do not have access to either of these within your department, one will provided to you upon arrival. We appreciate you working to source these from your departments first, as our supplies are very limited. Please direct questions or concerns to eweston@unc.edu.

Note: this is a dual-training for mice and rats. If you would like a rat-specific vaporizer training, please contact DCMtraining@unc.edu.

Please contact DCMtraining@unc.edu with any additional questions.