Principal Investigator: Francois Elvinger

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

The Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) and New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (NYSVDL) at Cornell University, established by law (New York Code - AGM - Article 5 §73-b) to support "the health of food and fiber producing animals, companion animals, sport and recreational animals, exotic animals and wildlife," is a comprehensive veterinary diagnostic laboratory, offering services in anatomic and clinical pathology; microbiology (sections of bacteriology, virology, parasitology, molecular diagnostics, and serology); toxicology; endocrinology, and comparative coagulation. Faculty in the Veterinary Support Services group provide consultation and assistance to clients on test selection, sampling and testing strategies, interpretation of results and incorporation of diagnostics in disease prevention, surveillance and control programs. The AHDC includes the Quality Milk Production Services (QMPS) with laboratories in Canton, Cobleskill, Ithaca and Warsaw; the Avian Health Program including the Duck Research Laboratory on Long Island, and the Wildlife Health Program. One quarter of the $30+ Million annual operational budget of the AHDC is funded through a contract with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, close to two thirds are generated from testing fee revenues, and the remainder is covered by additional state, federal, and industry contracts. The AHDC plans to leverage this funding to effectively support the proposed project. This project is to study and support the responsiveness and readiness of the AHDC in a regional or national high impact disease outbreak in livestock and poultry. Such outbreaks affect the economic viability of animal and food industries and public health. It is imperative that a national system be in place to not only detect a first instance of foreign animal or emerging disease, but also provide the capacity to scale up testing activities to provide the testing backbone for all disease control, eradication and post outbreak surveillance, and to enhance and/or develop tests and work processes to effectively respond to such emergencies.With more than 200 faculty and staff who in fiscal year 2018, processed more than 220,000 accessions for more than 7,000 veterinary accounts from all states and territories of the Union and from abroad the AHDC has the expertise and infrastructure to be a Level 1 laboratory in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN).