Performing Department
Dept. of Population Medicine
Non Technical Summary
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).
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Goals and objectives of this project include providing and maintaining expertise and infrastructure for detection of high impact animal disease and disease agents. The AHDC has been designated a Level 1 laboratory in the NAHLN based on its accreditation status, infrastructure and functional laboratory information management system, its high level of emergency preparedness, surveillance capabilities and continuous surveillance output, the value and level of animal commodities in its service areas, and its active organizational contribution to the network.The AHDC has 1,586 ft2 BSL-3 functional space that is fully commissioned and has proficiency tested personnel and capability to test for many disease agents, including several select agents and diseases under NAHLN scope including avian influenza and exotic Newcastle disease, classical swine fever, chronic wasting disease and scrapie, foot and mouth disease, and swine influenza. As new NAHLN-sanctioned assays are approved for use, the AHDC is prepared to bring these tests on-line according to NAHLN prescribed protocols and time lines. The AHDC is to provide NAHLN testing not only for New York State, but for other states in the Northeast and the United States as needed and is set up to provide reserve testing capacity for other NAHLN laboratories as determined by Veterinary Services, maintaining surge capacity for FAD testing of 1,128 tests per 8-hour shift, and working to expand this capacity through improved use of technology.
Project Methods
The AHDC offers a comprehensive array of assays and platforms in all diagnostic domains under AAVLD accreditation and for select assays in virology, bacteriology, serology and molecular diagnostics under A2LA ISO 17025 accreditation to test for animal disease agents and disease. In particular for this project the AHDC molecular diagnostics, virology and histopathology laboratories have implemented the NAHLN standardized tests for diseases that affect or have the potential to affect livestock and poultry in the Northeast including influenza and exotic Newcastle disease, classical swine fever, chronic wasting disease and scrapie, foot and mouth disease, and swine influenza. The AHDC in addition is expanding its whole genome sequencing capabilities for detection of emerging diseases and support of epidemiologic investigations. The AHDC furthermore, in the past and in the context of this current project is actively pursuing enhanced electronic communication tools to message testing data to its federal partners in Veterinary Services.