Animal Procurement Management: A Complete Guide
Summary
Ordering animals from vendors, tracking shipments, logging receiving inspections, and managing quarantine periods, the procurement pipeline is where colony management begins. Colony.care handles the full procurement workflow so animals enter your system the moment they are ordered, not the day someone types them in.
From Order to Cage
Create a procurement order: select the vendor, specify the animals (strain, sex, age, quantity), and assign a destination project and protocol. Colony.care logs the order date, expected arrival date, and PO number. When the shipment arrives, record the receiving inspection, animals received, condition on arrival, health status verification. Accepted animals are created in the system automatically from the order. Any discrepancies (wrong sex, wrong age, DOA) are logged against the order.
Quarantine Tracking
Animals entering quarantine are tracked with a start date, expected release date, and health checks during the quarantine period. Colony.care flags animals still in quarantine so they cannot be assigned to experimental protocols. When quarantine clears, the status updates and the animals become available for study assignment.
FAQ
Does Colony.care integrate with vendor systems?
Currently, procurement orders are created manually in Colony.care. Vendor integrations (Charles River, JAX, Envigo) are on the roadmap. Contact us for the latest status.
Can we track animals from multiple vendors?
Yes. You configure your vendor list, Charles River, JAX, Envigo, Taconic, and any other supplier. Each procurement order links to a vendor record.