A new $47.5 million veterinary lab was dedicated recently in Tulare.

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Located adjacent to the existing UC Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare County, a new branch laboratory will provide complex diagnostic procedures to support ongoing food production industries, flock and herd health monitoring, food safety programs and surveillance for foreign and emerging diseases.

Services offered at the laboratory will include necropsy, bacteriology, histology, antigen detection, immunology, biotechnology and metabolomics testing. This state funded project continues the long-term partnership between the university and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in protecting human and animal health.

The new lab will be named the Alex A. Ardans Tulare Branch Laboratory. Professor Ardans is  recognized for leadership in revitalizing California’s animal health and food safety laboratory system by successfully merging service and research programs benefiting livestock, poultry, equine, and public health.

Dr. Ardans, professor of medicine and epidemiology, has served as director of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, formerly known as the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System, at UC Davis since 1987. His research interests include viral diseases of livestock and development of veterinary viral diagnostic aids, and he is active in several organizations including California Woolgrowers, Pacific Egg and Poultry Association, California Poultry Industry Federation, Pork Producers, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and California Veterinary Medical Association.