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Third-party research indicates that Innovive cages have 15X lower levels of ammonia than traditional caging and also feature a gentle animal environment.

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"Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations
in Disposable and Reusable Ventilated Mouse Cages,"
by Jerald Silverman, David W Bays,
Sheldon F Copper, and Stephen P Baker.
Published in JAALAS Vol 47, March 2008.

disposable rodent cages from Innovive

Innovive Airflow - The Science

Cage Design | Airflow Delivery System

The Innovive system has been shown to maintain lower ammonia levels, improve transgenic breeding and facilitate the prevention/eradication of disease.

One of the most important elements that make this possible is the ventilation system. The advanced engineering behind Innovive's patent-pending airflow dramatically improves the evacuation of moisture and gases from the cage over traditional systems while simultaneously eliminating air velocity or "wind" from inside the cage.


1. CAGE DESIGN

Both the supply and exhaust port are directly connected to the top of the cage with the supply air entering near the front of the cage and exhausted near the rear (this is reversed for the rat system, but the result is the same). The food tray in the middle of the cage serves as a baffle, enhancing the directional airflow and "purging" effect.

image 1. Innocage®, Directional Airflow

2. AIRFLOW DELIVERY SYSTEM

Innorack® state-of-the-art airflow system uses high pressure and low velocity airflow that results in high precision ventilation while providing a gentle animal environment. Instead of "blowing" air into the cage, Innorack® uses a high-pressure plenum to control the airflow being delivered to each cage position.
The air is forced from the plenum through high-precision nozzles before being introduced to the cage.

This results in our ability to precisely control the exact volume of air being introduced and evacuated at every cage position, regardless of whether or not there is a cage present in the rack. The actual velocity of the air entering the cage is less than what can be felt by the animals (or people) even when directly in the path of the air resulting in a draft-less environment.


3. THE RESULTS:

By creating a directional purging of air through the cage vs. a pure mixing environment the Innovive system evacuates moisture and gases at 30% more efficient rate than traditional systems.


4. DISPOSABLE VS TRADITIONAL AIRFLOW:

Unlike Innovive Disposable Rodent Caging System, traditional systems rely on supplying and evacuating air from the rear of the cage. This approach results in mixing molecules of clean and dirty air at the supply level, which means only an average of the clean and dirty air can be evacuated from the cage. Consequently, in order to clean up the air, traditional racks have to blow the air into the cage harder, introducing noticeable drafts into a cage.


5. AIRFLOW DIFFERENCE- MEASURED

image 2. Airflow Efficiency, Market Leaders, 60 ACH

When all systems are set at the same ACH, the Innovive system performs best.


The difference between these two philosophies has also been validated by third parties.
The following chart is an excerpt from a peer reviewed study that was published in the JAALAS journal.

image 2. Airflow Efficiency, Market Leaders, 60 ACH

6. DIFFERENCE- TRANSLATED INTO BENEFITS

    The GENTLE ANIMAL ENVIRONMENT yields a number of benefits:
  • Improved breeding (more about breeding here).
  • Lower ammonia concentrations. Download article here.
  • More efficient evacuation of moisture from the bedding.
  • Diminished animal disturbances due to extended change out periods and low velocity air.
  • Reduced allergen exposure lowers health care expenses.
  • A cleaner, more pleasant work experience reduces employee stress and management headache.