AALAS Meeting Success

The 2023 National AALAS Meeting was a huge success for the Oak Hill Companies. This year it was hosted in Salt Lake City, Utah and this was a neat benchmark for our company. The very first AALAS meeting we attended as a vendor was at Salt Lake City, Utah in 2006. Those were humble beginnings. We attended with a small booth, not knowing what we were getting into but we’ve been exhibiting every year since. Now, 17 years later we had an island booth with one of our Mercedes sprinter vans on display!

The Mercedes Sprinter Van was there to showcase our transportation company and it’s abilities. This van represents our fleet of vehicles that transport all of our own animals but also provides animal transportation to anyone in the research community. Every week these vans are traveling the continental United States delivering our animals and all different species for other facilities.

Our core company “Oak Hill Genetics” also had great leads at the AALAS Meeting. We saw particular interest in our domestic swine and sheep. This is exciting as we continue to expand into new areas and also add clients to existing areas. New business in existing areas that we serve is always great as it gives us more ability to ride share deliveries and save everyone on the transportation cost.

If you are interested in any of our services or want to get in touch with us, simply head over to our website https://www.oakhillgenetics.com.

Here is a brief overview of the services our companies can provide.

Oak Hill Genetics

  • Domestic Swine
  • Mongrel Hounds
  • Sheep
  • Animal Housing
  • Blood products and tissue

Oak Hill Courier

  • Colony moves
  • Large animal transportation
  • Small animal transportation
  • Transports from other animal vendors to your facility

2024 looks to be an exciting year of continued growth for our company and we hope you are a part of that!

Wash Bay Wonder

What is the wash bay wonder you ask? Well, biosecurity is the backbone to maintaining our animal health and protecting our customers. Recently, we invested in a larger and newer wash bay facility to help us continue to serve our increased demand and improve our practices. The wash bay area is where all the vehicles and animal crates are cleaned and sanitized prior to leaving for your facility. Below are a few of the key features our team is excited about. These features make it more convenient for them to consistently do a great job.

  • Large Bay: We all know that if you are properly setup to do a job it will be done better on a consistent basis. Prior to this addition, our largest trucks did not fit well in the cleaning bay and this made the cleaning process unpleasant in the winter time. The large trucks now fit comfortably in the cleaning bay, giving the team a better environment to do their job well.
  • Automation: We’ve added some automation to our processes. The cleaning soap and disinfectant are on individual hoses that are plumbed to supply tanks with low pressure pumps. For rinsing, you can select from a low pressure/high volume pump or a high pressure/low volume pump with heat. All of these little features make cleaning the vehicles and animal crates a quick task and ensure the proper processes can be followed.
  • Waste management: At the very back of the cleaning bay, we installed a waste management conveyer into the floor that carries the dirty animal bedding out of the bay. When the vehicle returns from a trip, we back them into the wash bay and clean out the dirty bedding. The conveyer allows us to immediately remove the dirty bedding from the wash bay area, helping to lower our risk.

The wash bay is a key part to our transportation company and the courier services that we provide. If you are interested in our transportation company, Oak Hill Courier. More information on our services can be found here. https://www.oakhillgenetics.com/delivery

Swine Weight Loss in Transport

Swine weight loss in transport is definitely something to plan for. Over the last few years we’ve been collecting data for our internal use on how much our animals lose in transport. After a few years of watching the trend we have created a graph that we hope is helpful to our customers for understanding how much weight a pig will lose in the transport process.

This chart is meant to be informative only. When shipping your animals we plan for this weight loss to occur and select the animals accordingly so they arrive at your requested weight.

You can download or print the pdf below. If you have any issues please email me and I’ll be happy to send you a copy.

We are always looking for ways to add value to our customers. If there is any other graphs or data that we could provide you please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Head over to https://www.oakhillgenetics.com and click on our services page to stay updated on what we offer.

Pig-Weight-Loss-Graph-2Download

Winding down or Winding Up?

The year of 2022 may be winding down, but we are just winding up! 2023 holds many exciting advancements for our company. We are excited for how this will affect our customers in the upcoming years.

2022 – Animal Housing Facility

Our Animal Housing facility was completed and has been a huge success. Upon completion of this facility, we have filled the facility to 50% immediately. It is exciting to see clients realizing the benefit of this service.

2023 – Biosecurity Advancement

Pictured below is new construction on an additional bay for our wash bay area. We use this area to clean and sanitize all of our delivery vehicles before they are loaded for delivery. The additional bay will help us improve biosecurity practices, and allow us to accommodate growth in our fleet as we continue to expand our sales and transportation services. You can read more about our transportation services below.

Animal Delivery

“We will leave the lights on”

The animal housing facility is nearing completion and we are very excited! This facility is designed to maintain the quality of your research facility while your animals are in our care. Below are some of the highlight features of this facility.

  • Seven individual animal rooms, with up to 10 air changes per hour.
  • Raised tender foot flooring, capable of configuration for multiple species.
  • HEPA filtered HVAC system.
  • Standby generator dedicated to this facility to ensure power supply at all times.

The Pig Motel

Biomedical research animal housing facility coming soon!

Natural Protector

Ripley

Ripley is another great example of how dogs can be man’s best friend. He was raised at our facility until about six months of age, at this point he was transported to a facility in California. After spending some time there he was adopted to a family in southern California that happened to have a little girl. Ripley soon fell in love with this girl, and became her best friend and protector. Their bond became so strong, that Ripley would jump the five foot fence surrounding their home, and run to school to wait outside the classroom for the girl. Ripley would then walk her home from school, happy that his friend was home to play. Ripley entails what our values strive to be, to add value to others. https://oakhillgenetics.com/values/

Animal Research Perception vs Reality

Animal-Research-Perceptions-vs-RealityDownload

Foundation of Biomedical Research (www.fbresearch.org) has been kind enough to provide us with the valuable information written in the above article. Medical Research is often misunderstood due to the limited amount of information shared to the public so this is one way we can partner with FBR in helping to educate and share the facts of Medical Research and how much it has advanced science and medicine for animals and mankind.

Improving Lives

Socialized and happy dogs are very important to us here at Oak Hill Genetics. Each dog is played with regularly and one of the people that is integral to our team is Philip. One of the things that is important in socializing is starting the interaction properly at a young age. This is what Philip does. Philip is a young man that has Down Syndrome. Philip loves his job playing with puppies. One of the things he struggles with is grasping the passage of time. Instead of watching the clock, Philip has a sand timer that he follows to know how long he should play with each puppy. When the sand timer runs out Philip selects another puppy and rubs its belly and holds it close until the timer is up again. He will do this for hours on end if we allow him. We are very happy to have Philip on our team and see the joy and fulfillment it brings to his life! Each person has a gift and Philip has a special connection with animals.