Californian animal health, food safety lab to close on lack of funds

Budget cuts have forced the Fresno-based California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System into a closure.

The laboratory, which is managed by the University of California, Davis, will close on July 19.

The laboratory system provides diagnostic services for diseases in livestock, poultry and horses to veterinarians and animal producers in California's agricultural heartland. Closure of the Fresno laboratory will shift diagnostic testing to other facilities in the laboratory system.

The Fresno branch laboratory has provided a full range of testing services including poultry disease monitoring, as well as surveillance for brucellosis, tuberculosis and fowl viruses.

Following the lab's closure, brucellosis surveillance and poultry pathology will be carried out at the Tulare laboratory. Diagnostic tests for viruses in poultry will be conducted at the laboratory at UC Davis, while blood and serum tests will be done at the Turlock laboratory.