Lab Animal Care Technician III (large animal)

OVERVIEW: 

Responsibilities include all activities required for the proper care and maintenance of on-site animals, and activities required for research animals maintained in the customer's facilities.  All employees are expected to perform their duties as assigned, arrive to work at 7 am and depart at 3:30 pm (M-F).  You may be required to work on weekends and holidays.  The weekend/holiday hours are from 7 am to 12 pm. This position is designated as essential.  In addition, you will be required to work extra hours during emergency situations or if any unexpected situation arise after hours.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:   

• Understands and follows appropriate Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), sanitation requirements, safety procedures, proper personal protective equipment, and quality assurance guide­lines.
• Shall possess advanced technical knowledge of swine colony health management to include, but not limited to daily colony health examinations, clinical observations of sick animals, health assessments, experimental manipulations, providing animal treatments as instructed by the veterinarian, weaning, and providing technical support (e.g. animal handling and restraint, injections, sample collection, treatments, surgical preparation, anesthetic recovery, post-operative observations, and assist with research procedures as directed).  
• Provides technical functions required by research protocols, perform animal husbandry - which can include feed, watering, and cleaning cages as required. 
• Provides environmental enrichment and/or behavioral assessments and maintains animal health records. 
• Communicates with veterinary support staff, facility veterinarian(s), investigators and other staff members regarding the health of animals and experimental manipulations as needed.  
• Provides relevant task-specific technical, husbandry and administrative training to staff.  
• Provides initial and refresher training to maintain and enhance employee skills and capabilities related to laboratory animal techniques. 
• Collaborates with contract training staff to formulate teaching outline and determine instructional methods such as individual training, group instruction, or demonstrations to attain task proficiency.  
• Actively interacts with customers as required to solve customer requests, inquiries, and complaints and to provide technical assistance. 
• Acts as liaison between scientific staff and support personnel. Provide support for perioperative and postoperative monitoring and oversight for large animal operative procedures to ensure compliance with institution policies, SOPs, and command directives, as well as external/federal regulatory guidelines, policies and procedures. 
• Assists the Project/Contract Manager in implementing and maintaining the QC/QA program, which includes animal health surveillance. 
• Receives, examines, transfers, identifies, and properly houses incoming animal shipments according to SOPs. 
• Dispose of waste from the facility following appropriate SOPs.
• Maintain clean and organized work and personal areas.
• Prepare and submit records, charts, logs, cage cards, and inventories as required by SOPs.
• Report all equipment malfunctions, failures, and repair needs to the supervisory staff 
• Knowledge of operating autoclaves, cage and rack washers, conveyer belts, bedding dispensers, bottle fillers, floor scrubbers, and high pressure and steam cleaning devises. 
• Perform other duties under supervision, as assigned.

Required Skills/Abilities: 

• Advanced knowledge of activities required for the proper care and maintenance of the animal species to include animal husbandry, sanitation procedures, and animal observations and may involve the use of potentially hazardous chemical, biological, or radiological materials.
• Shall have knowledge of animal behavior and practical experience working with animals to habituate them to new procedures, equipment, and environments through training and positive reinforcement
• Ability to understand and operate sophisticated equipment (ventilated cage systems, BSL2 hoods, automatic watering systems, etc.) and complex management policies for animal care. 
• Must possess the physical strength, dexterity, and endurance to handle cages, racks, large pieces of miscellaneous equipment, feedbags and other materials and equipment normally found in a research facility.

 Education and Experience: 

• BS/BA in life science field 
• 5 years of experience performing duties as a Laboratory Animal Technician is preferred
• AALAS LATg  certification required