GENERAL SUMMARY / OVERVIEW:

Research Animal Specialists at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Comparative Medicine (CCM) provide basic husbandry, health surveillance, and compliance monitoring to laboratory animals. Responsibilities also include performing equipment sanitation, maintaining husbandry records, and supporting the facility teams in daily work as needed.

All Research Animal Specialists work in a team environment and participate in continuous improvement initiatives. Rotating weekend and holiday work hours are required. CCM offers a wide variety of career and skill building opportunities, including a career ladder with a technical or management track.

Whether you are a seasoned lab animal professional or new to the field, this is a challenging position in which you will be caring for and supporting the research animals contributing to biomedical disease research. The primary role of the biomedical research performed at MGH is the pursuit of scientific understanding and the development of patient therapies for a variety of diseases and illnesses.

For more information regarding MGH and the extensive benefits package offered to employees, visit: https://www.massgeneral.org/careers

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Following Duties are performed daily with minimal supervision:

• Performs Facility Cage and Equipment Wash Operations
• Provides Facility Maintenance and Sanitization:
  • Maintain animal rooms so that secondary enclosure is free of infectious agents.
  • Report facility and environmental issues that fall outside animal welfare regulatory requirements (as defined in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals).
• Provides Animal Husbandry Tasks:
  • Serve as a member of a research animal care team, which is responsible for daily animal husbandry and welfare checks in the facility.
  • Perform daily work involving the handling of genetically engineered animal models, animals with immuno-compromised health status, and animals recovering from surgery or other invasive procedures, etc.
  • Perform daily animal pen/caging sanitization or changing.
  • Provide compliance monitoring of cage conditions. (Overcrowded cage management, spot changing of dirty cages, etc.).
  • Record critical facility data/documentation on a daily basis required by local, state and federal regulatory agencies.
  • Perform routine euthanasia on laboratory animals according to the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) Panel on Euthanasia.
• Provides Animal Health Monitoring:
  • Evaluate animal's health each day and report abnormal clinical signs to the team lead and veterinary staff per SOP.
  • Provide follow-up notification and treatment of common health concerns prescribed by the veterinary staff per SOP.
  • Reports progress of therapies to the team, veterinary staff, and PI staff via health card notifications and email.

The Following Duties may be performed daily under supervision from the Team Lead or Manager:

• Perform husbandry and health monitoring of animals in ABSL2 areas.
• Assist the Team Lead or designee with housing incoming animals.
• Provide research support services.
• Collect sentinel samples processing and evaluation.
• Perform husbandry and health monitoring of USDA covered species, updating Individual Animal Records when required.
• Ordering and receiving facility supplies, monitoring material replenishment systems.
• Assist in the creation, validation and maintenance of visual controls within the facility.
• Provide treatment and follow-up of non-standard health concerns as prescribed by the veterinary staff.
• Comply with CCM and MGH policies and standard operating procedures.
• Works holiday and weekends as assigned.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• High school diploma or equivalency degree required.
• Experience in care of animals preferred.
• Associates degree or higher in veterinary or related science from an accredited institution is a plus.

SKILLS / ABILITIES / COMPETENCIES REQUIRED:

• Proficient in verbal and written English and Mathematics pertinent to the duties of this position and situations encountered in the animal facility.
• Ability to lift and move 50 lbs on a regular basis.
• Long periods of standing.
• Ability to learn and use bar code/PDA technology and basic computer skills including email and Microsoft Outlook.
• Has a customer-focused attitude and enjoys working with similarly dedicated persons in a team fashion within a high-energy research environment.