Purdue Campus Spotlight: Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory

What is the history of your department?

ADDL is the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. We have two locations: West Lafayette and HEEKE in Southern Indiana (Dubois County). The ADDL provides testing for a wide range of animals including mammals, avian, and aquatic animals. They comprise nine separate departments: Accessioning, Bacteriology, Histology, Molecular Diagnostics, Pathology, Parasitology, Serology/Avian, Toxicology, and Virology. Within these departments, the ADDL provides a wide range of services.

How does your staff go above and beyond?  

The staff at the ADDL step up to help each other, the state and the university. Many staff members are cross-trained in other departments or on specific tests. They are able to help each other with busy times or a high-consequence disease outbreak. The ADDL staff went above and beyond their typical duties by serving on the COVID-19 intake team or performing tests on human samples in the molecular laboratory. The ADDL works closely with the Vet School, assisting with the education of the DVM and Vet Nursing programs along with graduate students and residents.

What struggles have you faced and how did you overcome? COVID? Growing student population? Technology changes?  

Staff stepped up to the challenges faced with COVID. Because the ADDL provides essential services as defined by the USDA, we remained open for business throughout 2020. We implemented many safety precautions, both internally for our employees and in the way we interact with clients during sample drop off. These adaptations allowed us to continue performing our full set of diagnostic tests for our clients throughout 2020.

Shortly after the COVID outbreak, the ADDL started working towards performing the SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing. Over the course of two years, the ADDL performed SARS-CoV2 PCR on more than 200,000 human samples, all while continuing with animal diagnostic services. High-volume SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing for Purdue continuing in the spring of 2021, then slowed in the summer as the University changed to point-of-care antigen tests as the primary testing method at an on-campus facility.

However, by the end of summer, the ADDL assumed the role of the primary sequencing lab for Purdue to detect variants of the COVID-19 virus in the University population. The ADDL’s experts in molecular diagnostics seamlessly transitioned to offering this sequencing service for human samples and sequenced over 600 samples by the end of 2021. Our ability to perform SARS-CoV2 sequencing was no surprise to our clients who are familiar with the ADDL’s sequencing services for Influenza, PRRSV, PCV, TCoV and bacteria.

Awards

The ADDL is American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) accredited along with Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) accredited.

For more awards and recognitions, see pages 5, 6, and 7 of the ADDL 2021 Annual Report.

Did you know?

We are the official diagnostic laboratory for the State of Indiana. The ADDL provided the testing to Peanut Butter and Jelly (the 2021 pardoned turkeys) for travel out of state.

Get more information about the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.