Vet-LIRN Capacity Building for Increased Sample Analysis (U18)

Abstract In 2007, some pets became ill and a few died as the result of consuming contaminated pet food. An investigation revealed that the incident was due to melamine, an adulterant found in the contaminated pet food. Melamine was also found in tainted animal feed that was used for farm animal and fish. Some food animals that ate the tainted feed were processed into human food. This event had major implications for animal and human health. In recognition of the event and its consequences, the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) sought out cooperative agreements with veterinary diagnostic laboratories to enable analysis of animal diagnostic samples and animal food/drug products in the event that laboratory surge capacity resulting from large-scale outbreak or threat incident is needed. Participating laboratories have increase surge capacity and have prepared for analysis related to microbiological or chemical contamination, either through intentional or unintentional means. This consortium of laboratories is useful for the detection and surveillance of animal feeds or other large-scale outbreaks, so as to halt an event early and reduce consequences. The emergent of SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2019 was a public health need that was not identified at the time of our original Vet-LIRN award. The susceptibility of multiple animal species including household pets to the virus generated an unknown threat to public health, and warrant investigation to bridge the knowledge gap of the virus at the human-pet/animal interface. This application is to continue the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory’s (WVDL) commitment to this cooperative agreement and to establish rapid communication with Vet-LIRN to increase the government’s ability to examine samples from animals adversely affected by contaminated or adulterated products. Examination of such samples can contribute to overall food safety as animal food events could signal potential issues in the human food system. The University of Wisconsin (UW)- Madison, Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL) is fully accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD), and thus, has the personnel with necessary experience, technical expertise and necessary infrastructure to participate in method standardization, training, proficiency testing, and deployment of new equipment to accomplish the task described above with relative ease. The WVDL has participated in several proficiency test and intra- laboratory comparison exercises (ICE) in the past 5 years and has participated in other funding opportunities included the purchase, implementation and utilization of the Illumina iSeq 100 sequencing platform and SARS-CoV-2 PCR and serology testing.