Increase regional testing capacityand rapid pathogen characterization capabilities at the oregonveterinary diagnostic laboratory

The oregon veterinary diagnostic laboratory (ovdl) in the carlsoncollege of veterinary medicine, oregon state university provides essential surveillance and diagnostic laboratory services to help safeguard the health of animals and communities in the pacificnorthwest. The ability of diagnostic laboratories to respond to publichealth emergencies has been severely tested over the last 18 months.veterinary diagnostic laboratory members of the nahln led the way in therapid development and implementation of high throughput moleculardiagnostic testing as hospital laboratories were quickly overwhelmed.throughout the last 18 months, the ovdl has played a critical role inproviding surge capacity to test human clinical specimens for thepresence of sars-COV-2 while maintaining essential diagnostic servicesfor veterinary hospitals andclinics and readiness to respond toemerging agricultural pathogens such as rhdv and sars-COV-2 in farmedmink. The experience and testing capabilities ofthe molecular diagnostics section at the ovdl for the surge testingneeded throughout the state allowed US to provide a critical publichealth service. As the demand for sars-COV-2 testing winds down, we havethe opportunity to incorporate equipment acquired during this extendedemergency into our routine and emergency response testing workflows tosupport and expand our nalhn related surveillance and foreign animaldisease investigation testing.objective 1: incorporation of new testing equipment into the ovdlveterinary diagnostic testingoperations.objective 2: harmonization of laboratory protocols.objective 3: implementation of rapid sequencing of pathogens at theovdl.no subawards.