Benchmarking the Ratio of Technical Staff for the Care of laboratory mice, according to the personnel’s role and housing and husbandry conditions

The care of laboratory animals relies primarily on the technical personnel responsible for daily husbandry tasks such as provision of feed, water, and controlling housing conditions. However, for a fixed colony size, it is not possible to compare between animal facilities the number of dedicated technicians when housing conditions are significantly different. Nonetheless, when budgets are allocated to the development of the housing conditions, stakeholders should also consider the impact on the workforce budget. Of course, when staffing provision is lacking, animals suffer, the quality of experimental data and reproducibility can be affected, and personnel’s wellbeing is at risk too. Rather than providing recommendations on the required workforce, this working group will have the duty to set-up a survey and perform a benchmarking exercise. Facilities will then be able to assess for a specific housing condition whether they are within range compared to other facilities, identify potential gaps in their workforce, and take corrective measures.