Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.LINCOLN — A Styrofoam carton, about 12 by 12 inches, sits on an ordinary schoolroom table in the entrance hall of the Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.
What, exactly, is in this box is anybody's guess.
Inside might be a needle-drawn sample of a tumor taken from someone's pet golden retriever in Lincoln or Omaha. It might hold a portion of a pig's gut submitted by a northeast Nebraska veterinarian seeking to identify the virus attacking his client's herd. It could contain muscle tissue taken from a mustang felled by over-exertion during a federal roundup of wild horses in Nevada.
"Salmonella, circovirus, tularemia, anthrax," lab director Alan Doster said. "It's like Christmas. We don't know what's going on in that box."
The delivery of that mysterious and potentially dangerous box through a public entrance into an open hallway is an example of the things accreditors say need to be changed at the laboratory, located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's East Campus. The accreditors' concerns, in turn, have led UNL officials to approach state lawmakers with a request for money to build a new lab.
For now, the university is asking for $5 million to analyze a new site just northwest of the existing building and to draw up detailed blueprints. It would return later with a request for $50 million in construction funds, with the aim of opening a new lab in 2017.
Lab backers are going to have to do some convincing, though. The University of Nebraska has asked the state to kick in a total of $91 million this year for multiple NU construction projects. The hefty request has gotten a chilly response from Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, who is pushing a $130 million proposal to cut taxes.
Considered a state-of-the-art facility when it was built in 1975, the laboratory has been in jeopardy since 2007, when it failed an inspection and was placed on provisional accreditation by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians.
It was a wake-up call for UNL officials, who quickly corrected problems with the lab's quality-assurance procedures.
They also spent $150,000 on an architect, who concluded that a new building was the most cost-efficient way to cure the building's structural shortcomings, which include the lack of separate, biosecure entrances to handle specimens and animal cadavers; an outdated ventilation system that could circulate pathogens throughout the building; and a lack of space to accommodate the latest laboratory equipment.
The lab was restored to full accreditation in 2009, thanks to those efforts. But with budgets tight in the wake of the national economic recession, the proposal to build a new lab never made it to the top of the University of Nebraska's construction priority list.
Late last year the accreditors returned to a stalled project. UNL officials fear the accreditation report, due to arrive later this month or in early March, will contain bad news, perhaps a return to provisional accreditation. And without a commitment to improving the lab, the officials say, Nebraska could lose its accreditation and possibly the lab itself.
Albion, Neb., cattleman Jay Wolf is among those who are worried.
"We've got to get something done or we'll lose it," he said.
UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman described the lab as a "critical project."
"It is imperative that we have a first-rate accredited laboratory," he said.
The only public laboratory of its kind in Nebraska, the veterinary lab serves multiple purposes.
It's not merely a place where farmers go to learn why their cattle, hogs or chickens are sick. It's also used to diagnose pets, zoo animals and wildlife. It tracks cases of contagious animal diseases and diseases that can be transmitted to humans.
It aids academic researchers, such as those recently awarded a $25 million grant to study E. coli, as well as pharmaceutical companies that develop animal vaccines and medicines.
Its faculty helps teach Nebraska veterinary students, who spend two years learning underlying science at UNL before transferring to Iowa State University in Ames to complete their degrees.
The lab's roots date back to 1869, when the Legislature mandated that the new University of Nebraska hire a veterinarian to help settlers battle hog cholera and Texas tick fever, a cattle disease, said David Hardin, director of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The veterinary lab handles 13,000 cases each year. More than 80 percent involve the livestock industry.
About 46 percent of the lab's $2.8 million annual operating cost is financed through clients' laboratory fees.
Dr. Lee Simmons, the former director of Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, was among those testifying at a legislative hearing last week to urge approval of the project. The zoo often relies on the laboratory for medical tests and necropsies, or animal autopsies. Even a profitable zoo such as Henry Doorly cannot afford to maintain its own diagnostic lab, Simmons said.
"Frequently it's the closest lab to the zoo that can quickly deal with the disease pathology for large mammals and birds," he said. "We've used them extensively over the years."
Doster said he has performed necropsies on mountain lions and a shark, along with cattle, hogs and other livestock. Last week he examined a dog killed in a domestic violence incident. He sometimes is called as a witness in animal cruelty cases.
State Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte, who sponsored the laboratory legislation, said he sees growing support among lawmakers for the project.
Heineman, however, has suggested that NU look for private donors to pay for a bigger share of its proposed projects.
An NU Foundation spokeswoman said the foundation is preparing to launch a fundraising campaign once the Legislature approves planning funds for the veterinary lab.
However, Doster said it would be difficult to get donors.
"People are not going to put money into something like us," Doster said. "People would rather be remembered for a shiny surgical suite, not a place where you do autopsies on pigs."
Contact the writer:
402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
