About ROS

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), maintains colonies of barrier-raised, Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) rodents under contractual arrangement with commercial vendors, specifically for use in aging research. They are not available for use as a general source of adult animals for unrelated areas of research.

Important Notices

Order Deadline: Tuesday, noon eastern time for following week delivery. Orders for mid-December/early January delivery should be placed early in December. The BRB Order Desk is closed from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day. No deliveries will be scheduled the weeks of Christmas and New Year's Day.

Eligibility limit: Due to the extreme demands on the NIA rodent colonies, the eligibility limit for NIA-funded grants is 20 animals per month, and the eligibility limit for non-NIA funded grants is 10 animals every other month.

Eligibility criteria: Please review NIA's new eligibility criteria. While there is a mechanism to apply for an exception to the resource limit, only a very limited number of such requests will be granted, based on scientific need and availability. NIA asks that the research community continue to exercise care and restraint when requesting animals from the NIA aged rodent colonies because even a small increase in the number of animals per order will quickly decimate the animal colonies. Questions about eligibility should be sent to rodents@nia.nih.gov.