The samples that could determine the fate of Kansas' economy come to a small backroom at the back of Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine at dusk and dawn, as they do at midday and midnight.
They come hand-delivered by courier or in nondescript packages and United States Postal Services mailers.
They come alongside other biological matter — individual samples of cancer in cats and viruses in dogs — all with varying levels of importance but certainly no lack of urgency.
Because no matter the scope or scale, with animal lives on the line, nothing matters more than accurate and timely test results at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, or KSVDL.
As the state's largest and only public veterinary diagnostics lab, the KSVDL is the laboratory clearinghouse that veterinarians around the state and country know and rely on to diagnose and track the diseases that could wreak havoc on individual households and the U.S. agricultural economy at large.
"We serve so many people here, and we have many resources to help people with a wide range of animal issues," said Jamie Retallick, director of the KSVDL. "We have people with zoo and wildlife backgrounds, people with poultry backgrounds, people with swine backgrounds — and that's just down the hall. There are all of these resources here to help, and we do this work often in the background."
The logistics of large-scale animal disease testing
Few kinds of professional schools are as wide-ranging as veterinary medicine, and the same holds true for the battery of diagnostic testing necessary to support the profession.
Imagine all the kinds of testing a human might see in health care — from virology to bacteriology to toxicology. Now imagine that same gamut of testing for various kinds of animals, including small companion animals like cats and dogs, large animals like cattle and swine, and zoo and exotic animals like elephants and orangutans.
That's why the KSVDL's staff members —including faculty, professional staff and veterinary students, residents and interns spread across more than a dozen specialized departments in three facilities on the north end of K-State's campus — conduct more than 500 types of tests for clients.
Veterinarians and animal producers in all 50 states and 52 countries send hundreds of samples to the KSVDL each day, usually by overnight freight but sometimes by hand delivery.
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Categories: Kansas, Livestock