The Coverdell Center soon will get thousands of new occupants – mice, zebra fish and snails.

Most of the animals will come from existing breeding colonies at other buildings on campus, said Chris King, head of the University’s Animal Care Office, which oversees experiments on animals.

“These animals represent several very unique genetic lines that are not generally available anywhere else,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Research on the animals will focus on developmental biology and infectious diseases.

Scientists studying developmental biology want to learn more about how the jaw and thyroid area develops, he wrote. Those studying infectious diseases will focus on parasitic diseases.

“Obviously, the hoped-for outcome of these research programs is to develop drugs, vaccines or other interventions to treat, prevent or cure disease,” he wrote.

Liberty Newberry, president of Speak Out for Species, an Athens area animal rights organization, disputes this claim.

“Even scientists will tell you that it’s sort of futile to test on animals. They’re so biologically different from us,” she said.

However, King wrote “the vast majority (of laboratory animals), probably over 95 percent, will experience no pain or distress.”

Newberry said she finds this claim hard to believe.

“It’s pretty obvious they do feel pain. I’ve seen video footage that leads me to believe they do in fact feel pain during experiments,” she said. “They cry. They scream. They try to get free if they’re restrained. They go insane because they’re caged, and they’re under so much stress.”

Regardless of her group’s strong opposition to the animal experimentation that will occur in the Coverdell Center, she said they have no plans to protest.

“We don’t really use protest as a way to educate the UGA community about issues we feel passionate about. We’re more about education and advocacy in a positive manner,” she said.

King said he does not expect outright protests to occur in front of the Coverdell Center, but he explained the steps the University took to keep radical animal rights activists from breaking into the building.

Employees must use a keycard to enter the facility. This is a standard feature in labs where animal experiments are done, due to the threat of animal rights activists, he said.

The mouse lab or vivarium is completely underground, so there are no windows – partly to keep activists out and partly to help preserve the hyper-clean environment of the lab, King said.

Animals that arrive at the vivarium first will be tested for any pathogens in the quarantine area outside the center. If they are clean, they will be taken inside, he said.

Healthy mice are a “clean slate” for scientists to test on – animals need to be disease-free so test results will not be distorted, King said.

The mice will live in shoebox-sized plastic containers with five mice in each box, he said.

Air cleaned by HEPA filters will be piped into the boxes while old air is piped out. The old air will be piped to another part of the building, he said.

The air quality in the vivarium will be cleaner and more stringently monitored than any office or classroom on campus, he said.