The National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research is an Indian Biomedical research facility, and

vivarium A vivarium (Latin, literally for "place of life"; plural: ''vivaria'' or ''vivariums'') is an area, usually enclosed, for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research. Water-based vivaria may have open tops providing they a ...

under the

Indian Council of Medical Research The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Gove ...

. The new 33rd flagship institute of ICMR was founded in 2015, at

Genome Valley Genome Valley is an Indian high-technology business district spread across /(3.1 sq mi) in Hyderabad, India. It is located across the suburbs, Turakapally, Shamirpet, Medchal, Uppal, Patancheru, Jeedimetla, Gachibowli and Keesara. The Genome ...

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...

. The center is a state of the art Animal house and

Animal science Animal science is described as "studying the biology of animals that are under the control of humankind". It can also be described as the production and management of farm animals. Historically, the degree was called animal husbandry and the ...

s facility located near Turkapally,

Shamirpet Shamirpet is a major revenue village panchayat, and also a suburb of Hyderabad city and district headquarters of Medchal-Malkajgiri district of the Indian state of Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central ...

spread over 102 acres of land. The institute proposes to breed specific pathogen free large and small animals such as mice, rats,

hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera.Fox, Sue. 2006. ''Hamsters''. T.F.H. Publications Inc. They have become established as popular small pets. The ...

s, rabbit,

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ...

mini pig Miniature Pigs, also called mini pig, or Pygmy pig, are small breeds of domestic pig, such as the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pig, Göttingen minipig, Juliana pig, Choctaw hog, or Kunekune (and specimens derived by crossbreeding these breeds). Mi ...

canines Canine may refer to: Zoology and anatomy * a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae ** ''Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals ** Dog, the domestic dog * Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy People with the surn ...

, swine,

equine Equinae is a subfamily of the family Equidae, which have lived worldwide (except Indonesia and Australia) from the Hemingfordian stage of the Early Miocene (16 million years ago) onwards. They are thought to be a monophyletic grouping.B. J. Ma ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

, and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s. Various species of non-human primates such as rhesus, bonnet monkey, cynomolgus monkey, pig tail monkey, owl monkey and squirrel monkey among others needed for research purpose. By tenth year of its functioning, the institute proposes to be self sustainable. The project was conceived way back in 2001. It got delayed due to financial and technical reasons. However, it got impetus in 2015.

Background

On 18 November 2015 the union Government of India, approved a long-pending proposal envisaging Rs 338.58 crore-world-class-facility for breeding beagle dogs, horses, and monkeys besides other animals on a large scale to indigenously to meet the needs of the country's pharma firms for drug testing and clinical research. Subsequently, The National Center For Laboratory Animal Sciences at the

National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) is an Indian public health, nutrition and translational research centre located in Hyderabad, India. The institute is one of the oldest research centres in India, and the largest centre, under the India ...

is being integrated to form the National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research.

History

"The need for the NARF-BR has been consistently felt as the existing institutes like

Central Drug Research Institute The Central Drug Research Institute is a multidisciplinary research laboratory in Lucknow, India, employing scientific personnel from various areas of biomedical sciences. Prof. Tapas Kumar Kundu, a molecular biologist, academician and recipien ...

, Lucknow and

are working on small animals, mostly rodents. They cannot meet the demand and requirement of biomedical sector, which has no option but to depend on other countries like

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

for testing their products," said a senior official from the

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India. The Minister of Health and Family Welfare ...

. Sharing the cabinet decision with reporters after the cabinet meeting, Manoj Pant, Joint Secretary of Department of Health Research in the Ministry, "The institute is expected to cut down research cost by 60 per cent and consequently drugs and vaccine by about 30 per cent in the long run." For instance, while presently research experiment cost in US and China is around Rs 2 crore for 180 days, similar tests for the same duration at NARF will cost just Rs 51 lakhs.

References

External links

{{Portal bar, Education Biotechnology organizations Biotechnology in India Science parks in India Biosafety level 4 laboratories 2015 establishments in Telangana Indian Council of Medical Research Research institutes in Hyderabad, India Buildings and structures used to confine animals Organizations established in 2015

Background

History

See also

References

External links