Supply of Animals: Lab animals must be obtained from accredited dealers and by accredited dealers, we mean suppliers in the business of supplying animals for lab use, and not from pet shops. The animals should be sold as "pathogen-free". Wild animals, mammals and birds, are even more likely to introduce disease and you must never allow them into the lab. They generally play host to a multitude of fleas, ticks, mites, skin fungi and pathogenic gut bacteria. Apart from the harm they might do to lab personnel they can pass on disease to other lab animals.