The new Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory scheduled to open this fall could have the capabilities to stop the spread of diseases affecting animals, but the facility is $3 million short of funding.

In hopes of receiving the difference, the Michigan Farm Bureau organized a walking tour of the existing Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory for government representatives and legislative aides Thursday.

“This diagnostic lab is not MSU’s lab, it’s the state’s lab. It’s our lab,” Willie Reed, laboratory director, told the group of about 30 people.

Reed said the major weaknesses of the current lab include the insufficient capacity for testing and the fact it’s decentralized among several buildings on campus.

The new lab, which is being built near the corner of Forest Street and Beaumont Road, southeast of the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education, will be equipped with a larger incinerator that can handle the safe disposal of the growing number of dead animals sent to the lab for testing. In 1999, more than 900,000 tests were conducted, and so far in 2002, 1 million animals have been tested for diseases that may be communicable to humans.

Dead blue jays and crows from across the state are sent first to local health departments and then to MSU’s lab to test for the West Nile virus. The virus has killed seven people since it came to the United States in 1999, and arrived in Michigan in 2001. Two virus-positive crows already have been found this year.

Although the virus has received a lot of media attention, it’s not the only problem concerning the state.

“Bioterrorism and agricultural terrorism are certainly on our minds,” said John Baker, associate dean for research and graduate studies for the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Ron Nelson, a manager with the Michigan Farm Bureau, hoped to persuade members of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the House and Senate fiscal agencies, and the Department of Management and Budget by showing them the cramped areas where diagnostic faculty works.

The new lab will be able to test animals for anthrax in case anthrax scares increase in the future, Nelson said.

“The diagnostic lab will be the premier, busiest lab in the nation,” he said.

In addition to anthrax, Chronic Wasting Disease also may be a threat to Michigan wildlife. The disease, which is primarily found in deer and elk, recently surfaced in Wisconsin and was the first known case of the outbreak east of the Mississippi River.

“It’s only a matter of time before it comes here,” said Joan Arnoldi, state veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Agriculture. “So we’re trying very hard to get ahead of that disease.”

Reed said the MSU lab has already prevented several diseases from entering Michigan, or from spreading too far into the state.

“But you don’t hear about those because we stopped them,” Reed said.

With the heightened misuse of anthrax and similar agents around the nation comes a need for heightened security for MSU’s lab. The new lab will operate at a biosecurity level of three, which is one notch below the highest level of security. This means that any diseases discovered will either be contained within the laboratory or destroyed.

“We’re very concerned that any infectious material that comes into the lab doesn’t leave,” Reed said. “No other lab will have our capabilities.”