MICE, a program to track and monitor animals in animal facilities

This program consists of a virtual facility in which scientists can perform all the tasks done in the real world (i.e., receiving animals, breeding them, preparing cage labels, etc.). Recording of each animal (birth date, cage number, ID number, tail analysis number, parents, genetic status, genetic background, etc.) enables reliable tracking. According to any parameter of interest, animals can then be identified, grouped, sorted, moved, and so forth. Crossings are automatically processed by the program. For example, new genetic backgrounds, generation number, and anticipated due dates are determined. The program also reminds the user when new births are expected and entering newborn animals only requires a few clicks. The genealogy of each animal can be determined in two different ways, one being the visualization of a genealogical tree from which information of ancestors can be retrieved.This standalone program, that will be distributed free of charge to academic laboratories requesting a license, represents a new and valuable tool for all animal facility users, and permits simple and reliable tracking and retrieving of animals.A survey of laboratories working with mice revealed that, except for the very recent "Mousebase" [1], which runs only on Macintoshes and requires the purchase of a license for multiple user configuration, and expensive commercial programs, no convenient system exists to handle recording information of mouse in animal facilities in a reliable manner. When this information is conventionally stored in notebooks, the tracking of different animals becomes quite tedious. Some laboratories have developed computerized lists using word processing applications, allowing animal searches with the word processor "find" function. But accidental modifications are possible and animal tracking, sorting and genealogy determination are basically impossible to perform. In order to sanitize this situation plaguing the majority of laboratories, we developed MICE