In recent years，the health status of laboratory rodent colonies is dramatically improved． However，there are still quite a few important infectious microorganisms staying prevalent or emerging in the laboratory rodent colonies． The health of laboratory rodents affects their suitability for research，accuracy and integrity of research data，animal welfare and human health． Therefore，an animal health quality control program，often termed health surveillance，health monitoring，is important to any research facility． Based upon authors’hands-on experiences，the basic principles of health monitoring program were summarized as follows; the necessity of health monitoring，how to develop an effective health monitoring program，sentinel program，common testing methodologies，sampling strategy，and how to interpret and respond to health monitoring results． An effective and practical health monitoring program should be established based on those aforementioned principles，and being consummated during implementation．