I'm looking into investigating the different aspect of antiviral drugs in animals (especially mice and ferrets) co-infected with bacteria and virus. Just wondering if anyone has prior experience in terms of minimizing bacterial contamination between experiments (special ways of cleaning the cage) and the different precautions taken to protect personnel, animals etc.
All infections should take place inside a Biosafety Hood with proper PPE. We routinely infect our mice by aerosols, depending on the virus and bacteria, this can be an option. Multiple animals are infected in a plastic cage that is empty and sealed inside a BSL hood, aerosols containing virus or bacterial are fed inside the cage through plastic tubing. The animals are transferred into a clean cage after a few minutes has passed and the aerosols have waned. After, everything is sprayed with clidox/chlorox solution and 70% ethanol before removing from hood and allowed to soak in bleach for a few minutes before cleaning.
If your antigens cannot be aerosolized (inactivation by aerosolizing) Intranasal inoculations are fairly safe to perform. Most laboratory strain viruses and bacterial aren't transmitted by co-habitation and the animals constantly groom themselves so chances of transmission b/w animal and tech is rare, again it depends on the antigens.
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