The Animal House at ACTREC is an independent facility housed in a two-storied building with an area totaling 15,000 sq. ft. On the ground floor are the service areas like records office, washing and autoclaving area, raw material room for animal feed, feed preparation room, a biochemistry laboratory for studying biochemical markers to check the purity of the animal strains, a routine microbiology laboratory, and a histology facility. A small area has been reserved as a virology laboratory to diagnose viral diseases in laboratory animals. The first floor houses the designated animal areas - the breeding and experimental mouse / rat / hamster modules. The experimental modules have been placed at the proximal end of the animal area while the supply and breeding modules are placed at the far end. In order to facilitate unidirectional movement of clean and dirty material, the animal area comprises of a central clean corridor, with the dirty corridor located on either side of the rooms.

The Animal House breeds, maintains and supplies 9 inbred / 3 random-bred / 1 hybrid strain/s of mice, 3 inbred strains of rats and 2 inbred strains of hamsters for the experimental use of researchers at the Centre. Biochemical and genetic parameters are measured at definite intervals to assess the authenticity of these animals. The Animal House also maintains a small colony of rabbits and a facility for nude mice. A transgenic animal facility has recently been set up. Transgenic and nude mice rooms are located at one end to restrict the entry of staff and thereby reduce the chances of introducing outside infections. The Animal House has a solar water heater system and a separate air-conditioning plant to provide operation theatre quality air, where air is passed through the series of filters and ultra violet light.

The experienced and helpful technical staff of the Animal House assist the research workers in their animal experiments, and are responsible for proper maintenance of this key facility of the Centre.