Animal Husbandry Technician II

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.

• Performing animal husbandry duties for rodents, rabbits, and large animals (swine, sheep, and goats), to include the preparation and actual changing and/or cleaning of animal cages and related cage accessories, feeding and manual watering or monitoring automatic watering devices. Includes entry and husbandry related duties in Biosafety Level (BSL) II animal holding and procedure rooms.
• 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 perform 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.

• Bachelor’s degree is preferred.
• ALAT Certified

• 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  (6:30a-3p), to include occasional weekend work.