State budget cuts will force the Missouri Department of Agriculture to close its animal health laboratory in Cameron on June 15.
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State budget cuts will force the Missouri Department of Agriculture to close its animal health laboratory in Cameron on June 15.
For more than 22 years, the laboratory, located at 302 West Grand, has tested animal blood and tissue samples for signs of livestock disease. Laboratory staff also performed necropsies, or animal autopsies, to determine cause of death.
Area veterinarians will now have to send blood and tissue samples to the department’s animal health laboratory in Jefferson City or the University of Missouri’s Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in Columbia, said Dr. Taylor Woods, director of the department’s animal health division. Woods said veterinarians and producers should expect some delays in getting their test results because of the increased demand placed on the existing labs.
The lab closing will affect seven employees. However, two staff members will fill open positions in the department’s animal health division, and two are planning to retire, Woods said.
“We had to decide whether to cut and weaken all of our animal health programs or eliminate one entire service,” Woods said. “Because of a decline in the swine population in the northwest region of the state, we decided to close the Cameron lab and divert services to Jefferson City. This was a terribly difficult decision for all involved, and we are doing everything we can to help those employees who are personally affected.”
Woods said the lab closing comes at a time of heightened public awareness about animal health diseases, largely because of news reports about foot-and-mouth disease, chronic wasting disease and BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
“Closing the Cameron lab will reduce our capacity to deal with an animal disease emergency,” said Woods. “It is unfortunate that we’re discontinuing this service at such a sensitive and uncertain time in our animal health industry.”
Rental costs, salaries, equipment and expenses for the lab totaled roughly $230,000 in fiscal year 2003. Animal agriculture contributes nearly $2.7 billion annually to Missouri’s economy.