<div>Background: Monitoring of sanitization of cage equipment is an essential function of any laboratory animal facilities, seeking to ensure the animal health and welfare. The purpose of the current study was to develop universal scale for monitoring sanitization through detection of residual ATP for the most effective process of sanitizing components of rodents micro- and macro-environment. 
 
Methods: Sterile pens and swabs for the HY-LiTE&reg; Luminometer Instrument were used to measure ATP concentration (RLU) on the cleaned surface samples. We have examined the elements of the microenvironment (rodent and rabbit cage, cage wire meshes, feed separating pieces, water bottles with tips, houses, tunnels, IVC cage frames, cage tops and cage wire meshes). The assessed swab area on each of the surfaces was 10&times;10 cm.&nbsp; 
 
Result: We observed, that combined washing (cleaned manually and with automatic universal washers with detergent) gives the lowest RLU values. Monitoring of the quality of sanitization of equipment and surfacescan be carried out without the use of microbiological tests. Use of pre-washing allows increasing the service life of caging equipment. We have developed an assessment scale to monitor sanitizing, which can be recommended to scientific and breeding animal facilities for monitoring sanitization cage equipments.</div>

Development of a Universal Scale for Validating the Process of Sanitization of Equipment, Materials and Surfaces in the Animal Facility