The University of Minnesota's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) is a national leader in providing rapid diagnosis of animal diseases, identifying emerging diseases, developing new diagnostic methods, and training diagnosticians and veterinarians. The VDL has been actively involved in research and diagnosis of mad cow disease and swine flu, receiving samples from all over the North American Continent and beyond. The VDL collaborates with agencies such as the Diabetes Center, USDA and is the lab for the Board of Animal Health (Veterinary and domestic animal oversight).
Participants learned from Dr. Jim Collins and fellow researchers about work happening in the following VDL labs:
1. Necropsy Lab including the BSL-3 Lab. The University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory performs over 16,000 necropsies - or animal autopsies - on all different types of species every year. Participants toured the BSL-3 section of the lab which makes possible developments of new treatments, preventative vaccines, and diagnostic tests against Risk Group 3 pathogens and epidemiological surveillance for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Equipment that enables the space to be a BSL-3 lab includes a large pass-through autoclave, an effluent decontamination system, and a HEPA filtered air handling system. The lab also contains a chemical digester which is their means to dispose of organic animal waste. With a combination of heat, pressure, and an alkaline chemical, tissue is mostly liquefied and in the process and sterilized.
2. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) Lab. Researchers in the IHC lab collaborated with the Electron Microscopy Submission lab to co-author a publication on equine shivers which won the prestigious Davis-Thompson Foundation (former CL Davis Foundation) Journal award for best article in the journal Veterinary Pathology for the year 2016.
Dr. Jim Collins, Professor, Department of Veterinary Population Medicine,, Board Certified Veterinary Pathologist and former Director of the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Collins has 20 years of experience working with the Schulze Diabetes Institute establishing testing protocols for pigs used as pancreatic isles. He has been a member of United States Animal Health Association (USAHA), American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) and has been a member of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) for 30 years. These associations are important for collaboration with regulatory officials and academia. He is also a member of American Telemedicine Association. His accomplishments include development of rapid detection methods for emerging diseases such as Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus. Learn about the work of Dr. Jim Collins.
