Sealsafe plus system

All mice received humane care in accordance with Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) guidelines. This study was approved by the McMaster Animal Research Ethics Board. This study is reported in accordance with the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines (Additional file 2: Appendix S1). Male and female C57BL/6 mice (Helicobacter hepaticus-free) were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Ontario, Canada) and placed in standard housing in the Animal Care Facility at the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI) at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). Mice were housed in a Helicobacter- and Norovirus-negative clean room in HEPA-filtered ventilated cages (Tecniplast Sealsafe Plus system) under 12 h dark/light cycles. Cages contained corncob bedding, nesting material, a structure (e.g. plastic igloos), and autoclaved bottled water (provided via the Avidity Life Sciences Reverse Osmosis 8600 system).

Male and female C57BL/6 mice (Helicobacter hepaticus-free; 8–10 weeks of age weighing approximately 20–30 g) were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada) and placed in standard housing in the Animal Care Facility at the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI) at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) and at the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), herein denoted as site 1 and site 2, respectively. Mice were housed in a positive Helicobacter and Norovirus room in HEPA-filtered ventilated cages (Tecniplast Sealsafe Plus system) under 12-h dark/light cycles. Cages contained corncob bedding, nesting material, a structure (e.g., plastic igloos), autoclaved bottled water (provided via the Avidity Life Sciences Reverse Osmosis 8600 system), and food (Teklad Irradiated Global 18% Protein Rodent Diet 2918) ad libitum. Animals were housed with 1 to 4 mice per cage and acclimatized for at least 1 week prior to use in 72-h survival studies. At site 1, the ambient temperate range for all rodent areas was 20–22 °C and the humidity was set between 30 and 60%. At site 2, the ambient temperature range for all rodent areas was 21–24 °C, and the humidity was set between 30 and 60%.