Principal Animal Technician

JOB SUMMARY:

Principal Animal Technician's duties may cover any species of animal and provide the same basic husbandry duties that would relate to the needs of that species. In addition to all of the duties assignable to an Animal Technician.  In addition to routine husbandry tasks (changing cages and racks, delivering food and water in accordance to established procedures, maintaining equipment and animal housing areas according to standard operating procedures and federal and state regulations), the Principal Animal Technician (PAT) is responsible for providing oversight of limited technical and environmental control activities in distinct animal care areas. The principal technician typically oversees the daily work activities of a group of three or more FTE animal care personnel and will evaluate employee performance with the area supervisor/manager (who conducts the review). The PAT recommends employment and termination decisions of staff.  The principal technician is responsible for training staff members and may provide facility trainings to laboratory staff. In addition, the PAT initiates and arranges orders and transfers of animals, supplies and equipment as needed for the specific animal care site. The PAT is also responsible for ensuring compliance with occupational health and safety regulations and reviews all area operations and records and performs other related duties as required. The PAT may also head projects that require a higher level of technical skill (e.g. design, construct coordinate animal enrichment, breeding and colony management, knowledge of quarantine procedures, administer treatments, and perform paraveterinary procedures).   The PAT is responsible for being familiar with and performing technical duties as well as data entry required for the management of mouse breeding colonies and other species as assigned. Technical duties include providing oral or injectable doses, taking temperatures, heart rate, assessing behavior/attitude, animal identification by tattoo/ear notch/ear tag, weaning, euthanasia, blood collection, tissue collection for genotyping, and other duties as assigned. Record keeping duties include maintaining per-diems records, animal health surveillance, feed logs, temperature/humidity charts, animal receipt and disposition logs, submitting daily electronic reports, entering data into a central breeding colony management database, maintaining a project history log, and keeping thorough records to track breeding/pedigree of mice bred if applicable to the assignment.  The Principal Animal Technician works with minimal supervision and may be rotated as a floater to various LARC locations to provide technical or back-up assistance on an as needed basis.

 

 DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:

The Laboratory Animal Resource Center (LARC) supports the research programs of the faculty by providing all services associated with the care and use of laboratory animals including the purchasing/receiving, daily care and monitoring of the health of all species and acts as a facility leader. 

DUTIES & ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Identify the functions or tasks that employees in the job perform. The essential functions should state the purpose of the work and the results to be accomplished, rather than how the function is performed. Of the tasks listed, what percentage of time is devoted to each? The more time employees spend on a function, the more likely it is that the function is essential. Generally, include those functions that account for 10% or more of the work, i.e., key items that contribute significantly to the achievement of the job.  The functions should add up to 100%.

%  

of time

Essential Function (Yes/No)

  

Key Responsibilities

(To be completed by Supervisor)

20

Yes

Husbandry Duties

• Daily maintenance of vivarium facilities with little to no supervision
• Change cages/racks, clean primary enclosures per schedule, feed and water different species of animals used in LARC
• Maintain all animals and animal housing areas according to LARC standard operating procedures for each species 
• Perform daily sanitation duties according to LARC standard operating procedures
• Always handle animals humanely and with care (mistreatment of animals can result in severe consequences).
• Monitor room conditions for temperature, humidity and sanitation; report conditions outside of set ranges to your Supervisor. 
• Remedy animal care needs as they arise.
• Communicate with the faculty on animal housing/husbandry issues in a professional and articulate manner