Vet-lrn Capacity Building For Increased Sample Analysis

AbstractIn 2007, cats and dogs that ate certain pet foods became sick and several of them died.Investigation revealed that the incident was due to melamine adulteration of animal foodingredients. It was also found that a portion of the tainted pet food was used to produce farmanimal feed and fish feed and some animals that ate the tainted feed had been processed intohuman food (1, 2). This event has major implications in animal and human health. In recognitionof the event and its consequences, the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) seeks cooperativeagreements with Vet-LRN laboratories to enable analysis of animal diagnostic samples andanimal food/drug products in the event that laboratory surge capacity resulting from large-scaleoutbreak or threat incident is needed by Vet-LRN and FDA for analysis related tomicrobiological or chemical contamination, either through intentional or unintentional means.This is an important consideration because if appropriate detection and surveillance plan are notin place such future event can lead to major animal and human casualties. Therefore, the goalis for the CVM to establish rapid communication with veterinary diagnostic laboratories andincrease the government's ability to examine samples from animals adversely affected bycontaminated or adulterated products. Examination of such samples can contribute to overallfood safety as animal food events could signal potential issues in the human food system. Thiswill be achieved by institutional capacity building that includes methods standardization, trainingand proficiency testing of partner laboratories and infrastructural enhancement throughequipment and reagent purchase. We seek to participate in this worthy project. The Universityof Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL) is fully accredited by the AmericanAssociation of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD). Thus, the personnel have theexperience, technical expertise and necessary infrastructure to accomplish the task with relativeease.