For over 50 years, the Wyoming Game and Fish Laboratory in Laramie has provided top-notch services to the department and other state and federal agencies.The main focus of the laboratory is fish health and wildlife forensics. Additional duties include aging of big game teeth using a technique called cementum annuli analysis. The laboratory is one of the few state laboratories in the country that is both a total service fish health and wildlife forensiclaboratory.Both programs are recognized nationally.
LABORATORY DIRECTOR
Applicants will be interestedin this type of position because of the wide diversity of duties and knowledge base andthe high level of responsibility and expectations this position has daily. This position requires a high degreeof expertise in numerous areas, including forensics, bacteriology, fish health and considerable game tooth aging. This positionworks every day towards the department's mission of Conserving Wildlife, Serving People.
Many rewards come with the Laboratory Director's position. This position works at a national and international level to protect the resources of not only this state but much of the western United States by assisting with forensics, fish health, and tooth aging. The position includes watching your staff grow and expand to their most excellent potential daily. You can also be hands-on throughout the three laboratory areas, so this person is kept from being behind a desk all day.
Duties of this job include supervising the maintenance, operation, and functions of the Wyoming Game and Fish Wildlife Forensic and Fish Health Laboratory, according to the strategic plan, and guiding the workflow throughout the laboratory. Duties also include supervising and approving activities of technical experts, biologists, and lab technicians in the fish health, forensics, and analytical services. One of the more exciting duties includes working with law enforcement officers to make a case against suspected poachers using advanced DNA technologies for matching and a minimum number of animals.
This position also includes being an American Fisheries Society-certified Aquatic Animal Health Inspector. This includes going to all the state, private, and wild aquaculture facilities and identifying them as disease-free. It is also necessary for the person in this position to prepare, implement and monitor annual budgets; review and approve payment vouchers, requisitions, yearly work plans, project funding requests, job descriptions, and performance appraisals; and conduct all hiring, supervising an,d training of laboratory specialists, biologists, forensic scientists, and technicians.
WILDLIFE FORENSIC PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Applicants will be interested in this position because of the uniqueness of the job and the ability to assist with conserving resources using science. This position is responsible for running the wildlife forensics program for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The Wildlife Forensic Program Coordinator is a person that is very active in all aspects of the national wildlife forensic science field.
Rewards are plentiful in this position and come in many forms, such as completing a tough case or assisting with a local investigator. This job is gratifying because the person in this position works closely with law enforcement and the judicial system to ensure that the convicted poacher gets his reward. This position brings satisfaction when you mentor undergraduate/graduate students to give them experience in the forensics world.
This position's job duties include Identifying blood, meat, and biological fluids collected in wildlife law enforcement and other biologically oriented cases for the department and other state wildlife agencies. This includes maintaining an evidentiary chain of custody and storing, inventorying and returning evidentiary items, and determining family and species level identification based on enzymatic and serologic analyses. Determine if an animal is poached often requires determining the gender of submitted samples using genomic DNA and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and performing microsatellite DNA testing of blood, tissue, horn/antlers, bone, feathers, and hair for matching and a minimum number of animals present for mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, pronghorn, turkey, moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.
A critical aspect of the job is training other laboratory and law enforcement personnel in areas of expertise, including sample submission, analyses and crime scene investigations. It travels to testify in court as needed.
FISH HEALTH PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Applicants will be interested in this position because they work closely with fish health and disease control problems and solutions. This position comes with many responsibilities and expectations in fish health on both a state and national level. The place is very hands-on and includes work in the field as well as in the laboratory.
This job is rewarding because you are working closely with the resources to ensure the health of Wyoming's fish meets the preset requirements of the department. Rewards include but are not limited to the knowledge that you are helping to make the waters and fish in Wyoming healthy for the anglers who enjoy fishing our waters. There is also the reward of knowing you have the skills to diagnose the different types of diseases that come through the laboratory.
Job duties of this position include:Planning, coordinating, and executing the fish disease prevention and control program for the department by providing legally mandated veterinary disease inspections for hatcheries, free-ranging broodstocks, quarantine units, and private aquaculture facilities. Necessary duties include consulting and advising Fish Division administration, hatchery superintendents, and fish culture personnel on fish health concerns and testing results to minimize disease impacts and to prevent the spread of pathogens. While not a major significant part of the job, an important task provided by this position includes providing all aspects of veterinary diagnostic services for investigating fish disease problems and fish kills at hatcheries and for field operations and performing the appropriate diagnostic tests to determine the cause of fish disease or death and making chemotherapeutic recommendations to hatchery managers.
The person in this position also conducts in-service training to educate hatchery and fish managers about proper fish disease prevention and control strategies. This aspect of the job is essential to try and decrease losses in the incubators due to treatable disease conditions.
The Fish Health Program Coordinator will represent the department's interests at national fish health policy meetings and is required to network nationally with other fish health professionals to determine the disease status of fish stocks and establish standardized sampling protocols.
FORENSIC ANALYST
Applicants will be interested in this position because of the dynamic workflow. You can do the forensics work firsthand with the guidance of the Forensic Program Coordinator. You can use your schooling, knowledge of forensics, and skills first-hand. This position is excellent for experience in the field o forensic science and introduces you to the judicial aspect of the forensic world.
This job is rewarding for numerous reasons. These reasons include learning to apply forensic techniques to a case, working in a positive, encouraging work environment, and watching yourself improve and learn.
Job duties for this position include: Independently analyzing blood, meat, and biological fluids collected in wildlife law enforcement and other biologically oriented cases for the department and other state wildlife agencies. This includes maintaining an evidentiary chain of custody and storing, inventorying, and returning evidentiary items. The person in this position will also perform analyses that will determine family and species level identification based on enzymatic and serologic studies and determine the gender of submitted samples using genomic DNA and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This analyst is expected to independently set up microsatellite DNA testing of blood, tissue, horn/antlers, bone, feathers, and hair for matching and minimumnumber of animals present for mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, pronghorn, turkey, moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion and interpret those results.
AQUATIC ANIMAL HEALTH INSPECTOR
Applicants will be interested in this position because they will work directly with the Fish Health Program Manager to learn the areas of fish health and disease. This position will learn to process, examine, extract, and analyze fish samples independently. This position requires field work and laboratory work so that a person can experience both areas of expertise.
This position is rewarding because you gain the knowledge and experience to conduct fish health inspections throughout Wyoming. You gain experience and confidence in your disease diagnostics with the help of the program manager and mentor.
Job duties for this position include Processing, examining, extracting, and analyzing fish tissues and assisting with organizing and conducting fish health inspections at the state and private hatcheries and wild broodstock sites in Wyoming. An inspector conducts field sampling and laboratory necropsies of fish and applies standard microbiological techniques, including microscopic examination of tissues; cell culture; virus assays; staining, and biochemical testing methods for the identification of pathogenic bacteria; parasite identification; histological specimen preparation; and DNA preparation and testing necessary for the disease certification of fish and gametes.
Position responsibilities include: maintaining inventory and maintenance of laboratory equipment and supplies; directing and training of laboratory technicians, students, and field personnel in sampling procedures; writing technical reports, articles, and methods; attending agency activities and meetings; presenting disease information to public and department personnel; assisting with literature reviews; developing and conducting research projects on fish diseases; and frequently traveling to fish culture facilities. Position responsibilities also include recognizing aquatic nuisance species and bringing new DNA procedures online for testing confirmation of bacterial, viral, or parasitic organisms of interest to the fish health pathologist.
