Fundamentals of Cage Wash Operations: At the intersection of technology, husbandry, safety, and compliance, accomplishing sanitation in research animal science

The animal care and use facility support - or cage wash - area has evolved tremendously in the past fifty years. It is now recognized as a critical component in programs of animal care and use throughout the world, yet there has previously been no single, comprehensive resource to support it. This much-needed book describes facility support operations that have a direct, substantial effect on the program’s ability to provide quality animal care. Editors James D. Cox and Bruce W. Kennedy, practitioners with more than 80 years of experience in laboratory animal facilities between them, show how cage wash serves as the hub of the entire research animal enterprise. After all, when cage wash comes to a halt, there are no clean cages or equipment, and research struggles to continue.

There is a significant volume of knowledge necessary to work in facility support roles, spread across many different resources, many of which are unpublished and/or at a highly skilled technical level. This book brings all the relevant information together in an accessible, highly practical guide.

By increasing staff knowledge and skills in the operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of equipment, the book shows that cage wash can be a viable career path, especially as facilities increasingly depend on different types of automation.

James D. Cox has a BS in Animal Science from Virginia Tech and a Masters in Laboratory Animal Science from Drexel University. He spent two years working in a breast cancer research lab at the University of Pennsylvania and managed research animal facilities for 17 years at the following institutions; Georgetown University, Walter Reed Army Institute for Research, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus. For the past 12 years at HHMI, Jim has led a team of individuals in building the animal care and use program from scratch. This work has included guiding the program through four AAALAC accreditation site visits. Currently Jim is responsible for all animal and biological services at Janelia, including rodents, aquatics, drosophila, molecular biology, cell culture, histology, quantitative genomics, and viral services. He has served on multiple AALAS committees, ILAM and ERC, and served as the co-editor for the LAMA Review for the Lab Animal Management Association. He is currently on the Board of Directors for Americans for Medical Progress, and biomedical research advocacy organization. His unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation has established him as a respected authority in the scientific community, dedicated to supporting and advancing cutting-edge research.

Bruce W. Kennedy, IACUC Administrator received his BS degree in zoology and MS in avian sciences at the University of California, Davis, and his EdD in educational leadership at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP). His career has been a mix of animals, chemistry, training, and people, in research and academic institutions starting in California and included 19 years in Virginia and Maryland. The work has included conducting and managing studies with experimental animals in the disciplines of nutrition, physiology, and developmental biology. Bruce's start in lab animal science was when he used the coturnix quail animal model for his MS graduate thesis in nutritional toxicology. He has also worked at the bench (analytical chemistry) with dogs in protein metabolism and rats in carbohydrate nutrition studies (USDA). He has experience writing Good Laboratory Practice toxicology reports (Hazleton), preparing experimental diets with test substances (FDA), and managing mouse facilities (NIH and Caltech). Bruce was responsible for regulatory compliance at CPP, administering both the animal care and use and the human subjects research committees and assisting graduate students and PIs in their research efforts. Currently he is the IACUC administrator at Chapman University and a lecturer on lab animal science at CPP. After earning his Laboratory Animal Technologist certification from AALAS, he inaugurated a lab animal training course for the USDA. He holds both the Certified Manager of Animal Resources and the Certified Professional IACUC Administrator certifications. He is past president of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Training Exchange (and will be 2018/9 treasurer) and American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). He served on the AALAS education, certification, and the scientific advisory committees. Bruce is a director of the California Society for Biomedical Research and a recipient of the B&K Institute of Animal Technology scholarship, the AALAS George R. Collins award for training and educating in laboratory animal science, and the Purina LabDiet animal technician award. He has served as an ad hoc specialist with AAALAC International.