Thank you for you interest in helping us to expand our tissue bank
for comparative studies on mammalian retinas.

Eyes are very delicate fantasticaklly organized organs. Doing research on this topic is based on great respect for the intricacies of evolutionary adaptations, for which the design of the human eye is one specialized example among at least dozens of others among the mammalian orders. Each species tells its own story and we and other labs around the globe are working on some of its many chapters.

If you are qualified (zoo veterinarian, biologist etc.) and have legal access to such tissue from (mammalian) species please contact us (address above)
to find out if we might cooperate in getting it into our lab.

• Eyes should be removed as soon as possible after natural death (or euthanasia)
  removing whole bulbi by incision of orbital connective tissue and cutting ocular muscels and optic nerve(with curved scissors of appropriate size), with minimal mechanical traumatizing the bulbi. Do not “clean” the bulb - eaving some muscle/tendon on  scleral insertion sites helps with ater orientation of the eye bulb.
• Immerse right and left eye – labelled or separately - in 4% paraformaldehyde (or 4% formaldehyde, formalin; ideally buffered in phosphate-buffer or phosphate-buffer-saline (PBS), pH about 7,4) for at least 48hrs.
  Please store at about 4°C.
• With larger eyes (> 10 mm diameter) please make a small scalpel incision (about 10% of circumference) at the border of cornea and sclera. This may help with fixative infiltration without inducing retinal detachment and other artefacts.
• Transportation: Because of hazardness of formaldehyde, the bulbi should be transported in buffer or 0,9% NaCl-solution in shortest possible time. Well-sealed plastic bottles are preferable. Please separate left and right eye.
• It is possible that we prepare bottles with fixative etc. and send it to you. However since this may be tedious, eventual cost compensation is preferable.
• Data-Sticker on the bottle should indicate: right or left, scientific species name, sex, date and time of euthanasia/death, date and time of enucleation of bulbus;
  if possible: weight of animal, age, other useful information, like cause of death etc.

Please contact us further , to arrange transport modalities,
and
Administrative formalities like CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) if necessary.

We are registerd members of the CITES "Community of scientific institutions” (code: AT 030, Institut für Physiologie). Between members of the community tissue exchange is much easier, check eventually the list of your country.
Eventual costs may be refunded to you.

We are very grateful for your help!

..........a.Univ. Prof. Dr. Peter Ahnelt

Some guidelines for collection and conservation of eyes (bulbi) from rare mammals:

Retinal Neurobiology
Dept. of Physiology, Medical University ViennaSchwarzspanierstrasse 17
A-1090, Vienna, Austria

Tel.: +43 1 4277 62330, 62332
Fax: +43 1 4277 9623
Email: peter.ahnelt@meduniwien.ac.at
Web: Functional Retinal Morphology