Animal Husbandry Technician II

Alakaina Family of Companies • San Antonio, TX

82d

About The Position

The Alaka’ina Foundation Family of Companies (FOCs) is looking for a Laboratory Animal Husbandry Technician to support the US Army Institute for Surgical Research (USAISR) out of Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree is preferred.
• ALAT Certified

Nice To Haves

• At least two to four (2-4) years’ laboratory experience is desired.
• Experience providing animal husbandry technical support in a DoD environment is preferred.
• Must be willing to work 0630-1500 (6:30a-3p), to include occasional weekend work.

Responsibilities

• Performing animal husbandry duties for rodents, rabbits, and large animals (swine, sheep, and goats), including the preparation and actual changing and/or cleaning of animal cages and related cage accessories, feeding and manual watering or monitoring automatic watering devices.
• Maintaining feed and water containers on a daily basis.
• Operating cage wash equipment in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs); preparing caging, transport containers/carts, and related equipment for cage wash including scraping floor grids, breaking down caging and dumping pans or scraping cages.
• Conducting daily inspection of automatic watering systems, door latches, fittings, and reporting needed repairs following established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Cleaning and sanitizing animal rooms, facility and animal care equipment and associated animal facility areas.
• Performing animal census to include the BLS II animal rooms if necessary.
• Performing animal health observations and reporting any abnormal conditions or behavior of animals to the Veterinarian, Facility Manager, Vivarium Manager and/or Surgery Manager.
• Completing all husbandry related logbooks, checklists and other records accurately and in a timely fashion.
• Monitoring and reporting any irregularities in the room temperature, light cycles, air changes and other environmental conditions that may affect animals to the Facility Manager and/or Vivarium Manager.
• Stocking an adequate supply of personnel protective equipment throughout the vivarium.
• Ensuring accurate identification of animals moved, requested, or treated.
• Disposing of animal carcasses following established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Performing bacteriological surveys designed to determine the effectiveness of equipment washing, decontamination and sanitizing procedures.
• Coordinating the distribution and stocking of husbandry related supplies and materials, to include animal feed, bedding and enrichment.
• Performing animal environmental enrichment duties for rodents, rabbits, and large animals (swine, sheep, and goats) to include preparing and distributing produce, enrichment feed and environmental enrichment devices.
• Maintaining supplies and materials to include animal feed, bedding and enrichment to ensure efficiency and longevity.
• Providing environmental enrichment feed and other enrichment devices and/or provide behavior assessment.
• Documenting husbandry procedures and enrichment distribution.
• Entering vivarium data into the computer-based Research Management System (RMS) management tool.
• Preparing and maintaining animal medical records following established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Maintaining the computer-based monitoring equipment such as the Edstrom Watchdog system.
• Coordinating with Logistics Division for vivarium and medical equipment maintenance.
• Conducting and recording the water quality testing program for the vivarium.
• Providing refresher training for all Laboratory Animal Husbandry Technicians on equipment and husbandry related procedures.
• Tracking animals, feed, enrichment, and/or supplies.
• Performing prescribed treatments on animals following established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Receiving and in-processing animals and performing routine animal care.
• Providing onboarding of new Veterinary Support Branch (VSB) Laboratory Animal Husbandry Technicians.
• Coordinating and scheduling animal, procedural and surgical rooms.
• Other duties as assigned by Supervisor.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries.
• 401K plan with company match.
• Medical, dental, disability, and life insurance coverage.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Paid time off.
• 11 paid holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees