A more modern and safe environment for veterinary patients, faculty, staff and students at the College of Veterinary Medicine is almost within reach.

The $48 million needed to start and complete the modernization of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and Veterinary Teaching Hospital should be obtainable from an appropriations bill currently in the Iowa legislature.

The Senate Study Bill requests the $48 million needed for the modernization project, but only about $40 million will go towards the College of Veterinary Medicine, said Andy Baumert, associate director of government relations for the university.

The remaining balance of the money will go toward Coover Hall for information science and fire safety costs. The rest of the project will be funded from $7.1 million in private donations, said Norman Cheville, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The bill could pass anytime from April through June, then the college could move forward with making construction plans. This means the actual groundbreaking may take place as early as the fall of 2004, Cheville said.

It is a three-year project, 65 percent of which consists of modernizing the current space, and the rest of which will entail adding on to the pre-existing structure, he said. The additions will include a small animal hospital, an equine clinic and a diagnostic lab biosecurity unit, Cheville said.

Modernization of the veterinary diagnostic lab is crucial in helping to fight bioterrorism.

“The first stage in fighting bioterrorism in Iowa starts with the veterinary diagnostic lab,” Cheville said.

Since Sept. 11, the Department of Homeland Security has been distributing money to develop facilities dealing with the diagnosis of infectious diseases.

“We received $1 million from the department about a year and a half ago, and they made it clear that we wouldn’t receive any more funds until the facilities were improved,” Cheville said.

Modernization of the college is important because it will benefit many others, said Tom Johnson, executive director of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association.

Johnson’s organization will be affected because most of its veterinarians are ISU graduates.

“The college is one of the best vet schools in the country, and with modernization of their facilities, they will be able to train the vets better,” Johnson said.

The association will also benefit because better trained veterinarians and better resources will improve animal agriculture within the state — part of the basis of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, Johnson said.

Johnson said he hopes modernizing the diagnostics lab will help produce more production animal veterinarians, addressing a current shortage. This would help with the foreign animal disease defense — in other words, agro-terrorism.