In the 2018 legislative session, the legislature approved $63 million of Iowa State’s requested $100 million to build a new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) over five years.

House File 2491, which outlines the purposes and terms of the funding, was officially sent to the governor’s desk on Friday. The bill states that Iowa State, “shall not reduce the amount that it allocates to support the College of Veterinary Medicine from any other source due to [this] appropriation,” unless the reduction is a part of university-wide cuts.

Concerns about the current location of the VDL originally stemmed from two independent audits of the facility done in 2012, according to an issue review by the Legislative Services Agency, a non-partisan group serving the Iowa General Assembly.

One audit was completed by a peer group from five academic institutions. Their audit listed insufficient space, space configuration and outdated systems and controls as concerns.

The other audit was conducted by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, whose only accredited public laboratory in Iowa is Iowa State’s VDL. They expressed concerns regarding a lack of space, air-handling and structural limitations, which could prevent the aging facility from keeping up with new technology. In the report, they say, “the limitations of the nearly 40-year-old ISU VDL facility are an area of immediate concern.”

Despite concerns for the facility, the VDL has continued working at its full capacity. In fiscal year 2017, the VDL processed 85,923 case submissions. That number has increased by more than 100 percent over the past seven years.

The review also references the VDL’s leadership role in three key animal health events since 2013, including being the first to identify and develop same-day treatment for the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PED virus), which can cause up to a 100 percent mortality rate in neonatal pigs. The VDL was also at the forefront of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus outbreak in 2015, a role which it maintains today, and the Seneca virus A outbreak, also in 2015.

According to the LSA, “During each of these emerging disease events, the ISU VDL aided in mitigating losses, maintaining continuity of business and determining freedom from the disease.”

Regarding the approval of $63 million of the $100 million requested funds, the Alliance for Iowa State said that “adequate funding for the new facility is crucial in order to effectively respond to large-scale outbreaks that can be extremely harmful to Iowa’s economy.”