BRF Update August 2022
I hope your week has gone well, please read on for a number of important updates:
Corynebacterium bovis update
We are awaiting the next round of our testing results, but so far it appears that spread of this organism has been relatively limited/slow and that infected animals do tend to present with identifiable symptoms. Once I again I would like to commend the technicians and researchers working with positive/at risk animals, on the success we have seen in limiting the spread thus far.
It is very important that infected animals are identified early, so I have attached some images/video kindly provided by researchers on what early/mild symptoms look like.
If you have any suspect animals at all, it is essential that you notify the BRF immediately – please email [email protected].
Gnotobiotics coordinator position
I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Carina Walpole will be joining our team in the Gnotobiotics Coordinator role, starting 1st Sept – backfilling Emily Duggan whilst she is seconded to the TRI Core Facilities Manager position. Carina’s extensive experience in complex/sensitive animal work, particularly with the humanised mouse models, will be a huge asset to our team and we are very much looking forward to working with her!
QBI Facility Manager position
With Trish Hitchcock’s retirement, this position is now being advertised – please details attached and pass on to anyone who may be interested.
Resignations
Vik Manodaran – Vik has been successful in being appointed to a senior technician role at Curtin University in Perth WA, and today is his last day. Vik has been a very engaging and professional member of our team and will be missed – we wish him the absolute best in this next stage of his career!
Rona Barugahare – I have been successful in being appointed to a 6 month secondment as the Operations Manager with UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation. My last day in this position will be Friday 16th Sept and updates will be coming through on who will be covering this role whilst formal recruitment is completed. As you may be able to imagine, I will be focused on wrapping up urgent items and preparing a detailed handover, and may not be able to address new items in the next few weeks, so I encourage you to send enquiries to [email protected] so that your query can be seen by other members of the senior BRF team.
Experimental storeroom – clean up
The team are working through items stored in the experimental store room to remove items from labs no longer working there and create space for new labs. They will be contacting labs to confirm removal of equipment and if no response is received after a period these items will be disposed of, so please keep an eye out for this correspondence.
Internal transfers – requests moving to Mosaic by 5th Sept
As previously advised we are moving to using Mosaic for all internal (Breeding to research wing at TRI) transfer requests.
We will be ceasing the use of email submissions from 5th Sept – noting that a few of these are still coming through, so just a reminder on how to start utilising Mosaic:
All animal users are required to complete Mosaic Researcher Access Level 1.3 to gain access to this functionality.
This course is located on the UQBR talent LMS, link: https://uqbr.talentlms.com/index
The course outlines:
1. Learn to identify the difference between an INHOUSE Movement, and a UQBR Facility Transfer (outlined in Researcher Access Level 1.2) within Mosaic;
2. Learn how to request an INHOUSE Movement within a UQ Animal Facility via Mosaic (Researcher Access Level 1.3).
As always, if you have any queries, suggestions or concerns at all please do not hesitate to let us know.
