Externs will participate in daily clinical duties alongside laboratory animal residents and faculty veterinarians, including handling, physical exams, and common diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in a variety of laboratory animal species. The extern will also participate in the following activities:
DIAGNOSTIC PATHOLOGY: Externs will gain hands-on experience in necropsy and will be exposed to in-house diagnostic methodologies including serology and PCR.
PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE AND RODENT COLONY MANAGEMENT: Externs will spend time within the unit managing health surveillance of the rodent colonies (sentinel program, quarantine, outbreak management, etc.) and providing breeding colony management services for investigators.
INSTITUTIONAL ANIMAL CARE AND USE COMMITTEE: As scheduling permits, externs will attend monthly IACUC meetings and resident training sessions that cover federal regulations and guidelines in the use of laboratory animals and provide training in protocol review. Opportunities may also be available to attend protocol start-up meetings and observe post-approval monitoring activities.
DIDACTIC TRAINING SESSIONS:
- Resident seminars covering information essential for the practice of laboratory animal medicine are held twice weekly during the academic year and are presented by Comparative Medicine faculty and residents.
- Weekly slide sessions are given by ACLAM diplomates for the purposes of ACLAM board examination preparation. The slide sessions, presented in a question-answer format, utilize material from mock exams and various slide sets.
JOURNAL CLUB: The extern will attend the bi-weekly journal club covering relevant laboratory animal journals, and may be expected to review and present an assigned article. Guidance on article review will be provided by the faculty veterinarians.
Our veterinarians are a part of the Department of Comparative Medicine. We have 6 ACLAM Diplomates and 2 lab animal veterinary residents at any given time. We have standard OR space/instruments/monitoring equipment x 3, rodent anesthesia machine, digital radiography, digital portable dental radiography, ultrasound, therapeutic laser, endoscope, and a medium sized pharmacy.
We are an AAALAC-accredited decentralized animal facility with an average daily census of approximately 125,000 animals, including >150 non-human primates.
The Department of Comparative Medicine consists of 22 faculty members including veterinarians, physicians, and basic scientists who provide a broad array of clinical and laboratory services and conduct research in metabolic disorders, microbial pathogenesis, cancer, metabolic bone disease, and genetics. In this environment, residents are provided a well-rounded experience in laboratory animal medicine, pathology, and research.
Students begin by shadowing residents for cases and upon demonstrated interest/skill/experience, hands on experiences are introduced. Students work M-F, no weekends normally, 8-10 hours/day.
Our students usually book an AirBnB or sometimes residents have a spare room they're willing to rent out- student needs to ask Dr. Asher if interested in that option.