Animal Health Officer - Scotland

UK Ministry of Defense • Dumfries, VA

373d • $28,710 - $29,810

About The Position

Are you passionate about working with animals and care for their welfare? Are you caring, conscientious and an excellent team worker? Do you enjoy working outside? If the answer is yes, you should come and work for APHA! APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it helps us be more innovative and make better decisions. We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups. Working as part of Technical Team, you will be instrumental in helping to safeguard animal health and welfare. Through engaging with inspections, surveillance and collecting samples, you will be contributing to the control and eradication of disease to protect both the economy and food security. We are looking for compassionate, dedicated individuals who strive for excellence and integrity and who put animal health and welfare at the heart of everything they do.

Requirements

• An agricultural background, an agricultural qualification or have knowledge of the agricultural industry
• High standards of written and spoken English and can communicate effectively about animal health topics with all stakeholders including customers, service users and colleagues
• Knowledge of basic Health and Safety and an understanding of safe working on farms and with livestock and poultry
• Able to work alone or as part of team, to take responsibility and remain positive and focused in the face of challenge
• Experience with excellent record keeping, auditing processes and maintaining quality
• A valid driving licence that covers the UK and access to a vehicle with appropriate business use insurance

Responsibilities

• Blood sampling of livestock species including cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry (after suitable training)
• Collecting blood samples from bTB breakdown cattle herds, including suckler, beef and dairy herds
• Conducting documentation inspections on animal identification, animal movement, breeding, medicine and other written or electronic records for audit and disease control and surveillance purposes
• Collecting samples for National Surveillance Schemes including feed samples from farms, feed mills and feed merchants
• Collecting samples and information for disease surveys
• Managing compliance inspections for premises handling animal by-products e.g., rendering plants, composting sites, hunt kennels and knackers' yards
• Playing an active part in contingency planning so the agency is able to respond to outbreaks of exotic notifiable disease and other emergencies
• Undertaking allocated rostered out of hours on-call duties to deal with incidents and to support disease outbreak reports
• Participating as directed, to contribute to the control and the eradication of the disease including taking part in rosters for detached duty to other parts of Great Britain during outbreaks of notifiable disease
• Working with a diverse team, both locally and across Great Britain, including other technical colleagues, veterinary surgeons and scientists during notifiable disease outbreaks

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees