NIA rodents are tattooed on the tail with the month and year of birth. Aged animals are often more sensitive to the stress of anesthesia and surgery and it is not unusual for some mortality during or directly after surgery. When surgical procedures are requested on animals from the NIA aged rodent colonies, the customer is responsible for the cost of the surgery directly to the contractor performing the services, regardless of the outcome. When NIA animals that have had surgery at the contractor’s facility die before being shipped to the customer, the customer is responsible for the cost of the surgery and the cost of the animal.

An independent service is available from Harlan to implant Avid Microchips under the skin, at $12.50 per animal. Harlan also provides various surgical procedures [2] at their BioTech Center, as described on their website.

Taconic performs surgical procedures as an independent service – for prices, please go to page 34 of the Taconic Price manual [3].

Charles River Laboratories (CRL) implants AVID Microchips as an independent service, at a total cost of $21.90 per animal. Surgical procedures are also provided by CRL as independent services and prices are on pages 32 and 33 of the CRL Research Models & Services catalog [4].