Disaster, Contingency, and Business Recovery Planning for Animal Facility Cage Wash Operations

Cage wash is one of the key functions of an animal facility and should be considered in the institutional disaster plans and business recovery plans. Most animal facilities routinely tolerate 2-to-3-day cage wash outages (for example for holiday weekends), so this chapter focuses on planning for longer- term disasters. Consideration is given to different types of disasters including weather-related incidents; physical damage such as fire, explosion, flood, or equipment failure; loss of utilities including electricity, water, steam, and supply chain for waste removal; supply shortages and outages including detergent, feed, bedding, and other supplies; and personnel shortages due to epidemics or pandemics, civil unrest, labor action, or weather-related travel restrictions.