The overall objective is to enhance the capability and capacity for surveillance, early detection of, and rapid response to animal food or drug related illnesses or other large-scale animal food/feed emergency events requiring surge capacity testing of implicated diagnostic or animal food/feed samples. This increased capacity will occur within a full-service veterinary diagnostic laboratory staffed and equipped to provide complete pathological, microbiological, and comprehensive toxicological testing for FDA, CVM, and federal, state, or local agencies. The Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health (DCPAH), College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, serves as the official veterinary diagnostic laboratory for the State of Michigan and is one of the busiest in the U.S., conducting in excess of 1 million tests annually. The laboratory has an extensive client base, with clients in all 50 states and Canada. The staff comprises 120 faculty and support staff in eight laboratory sections, plus Epidemiology. Individual laboratory sections include Bacteriology, Virology, Immunodiagnostics/Parasitology, Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, Toxicology, Nutrition, and Endocrinology. DCPAH also houses wildlife biologists and diagnosticians from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) and regulatory veterinarians from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). This unique arrangement facilitates efforts to address the important interface between domestic animals and wildlife. The laboratory is fully accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) to perform diagnostic testing on all animal species, and has been admitted to the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), the Laboratory Response Network (LRN), The Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), and the Veterinary Laboratory Response Network (Vet-LRN). Page 1 of 1
Chemical and microbial food or drug contamination events pose a significant risk to human and animal health. Examination of veterinary diagnostic samples, a unique component of the Vet-LIRN program, greatly facilitates early detection of animal food/drug adulteration or contamination. The Vet-LIRN network provides critical capacity for rapid response to reports of suspected food or drug-related animal injury or illnesses, and establishes protocols to facilitate veterinary diagnostic reporting to FDA, thereby contributing to overall food safety as such animal feed events could signal potential issues in the human food system.
