UMN Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory vital to HPAI response, conducting more than 115,000 tests since July 2023

As part of its disease surveillance and research efforts in response to the ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak, the University of Minnesota (UMN) Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) has conducted more than 115,000 tests since July 2023 for the disease. 

This includes more than 74,000 antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests and more than 41,000 nucleic acid-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Samples submitted for these tests come from poultry, bovine, companion animal and wildlife sources as the disease continues its spread across species. The VDL is part of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network of 64 animal health laboratories helping state and federal government agencies curb the disease’s spread. 

“We are making sure we are the eyes and ears for the disease,” said Hemant K. Naikare, director of the VDL, veterinary microbiologist and professor at the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine. “We’re providing early disease detection in an accurate and timely manner, so when our results go out, response teams can act on them very quickly.”

The laboratory’s full-service all animal species facility in St. Paul and poultry testing facility in Willmar, Minn., play an integral role in diagnosing HPAI in animals, contributing to ongoing research into the disease, and conducting disease surveillance across production, companion and wild animals. 

Its most recent efforts include:

• Receiving a nearly $1.5 million grant in collaboration with researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine to launch an HPAI surveillance initiative that will assess its emerging threat to Minnesota wildlife with the help of collaborators across the state. 
• Collaborating with the Minnesota Board of Animal Health to conduct raw milk testing for HPAI, which has resulted in more than 2,000 milk samples being tested from the state’s 1,600 dairy farms and the confirmed detection of one positive result.  
• Testing lactating cattle for HPAI before they are transported across Minnesota borders.
• Partnering with researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of California–Davis to study the virus’s impact on cattle, including how long the virus remains in the host and how long it takes a host to make antibodies. 

This isn’t the first time the lab has been part of a major HPAI response effort. During the 2015 outbreak, which resulted in the culling of more than 50 million chickens and turkeys in the U.S., the VDL helped mitigate the disease’s impact in Minnesota through the capabilities of its Molecular Diagnostics-PCR laboratory and staff. 

“We’re fortunate in that we’ve had decades of investment in high-throughput testing,” said Stephanie Rossow, a veterinary pathologist and faculty advisor to the PCR lab. “We’ve been here and ready. We’ve encountered a lot of different scenarios over the years, so we’ve got a really good group of people that can accommodate the current need and get that testing done.”

Since this latest outbreak began in 2022, more than 169 million birds have been lost from poultry operations, driving up the price of eggs and other consumer goods. The virus has been detected in wild birds and mammals, domesticated animals such as cats, and in dairy cattle operations. Nearly 70 cases in people also have been confirmed. Testing, surveillance, and research are critical to combatting the outbreak, according to Naikare. 

“You have two options: either you do the testing for early disease detection or you react to the disease—the latter of which is very detrimental to the economy,” Naikare said. “If diseases are not controlled ahead of time, they can become a huge outbreak. This variant of HPAI has been an ongoing poultry outbreak for more than three years now. It used to be a seasonal disease and was considered a foreign animal disease. Unfortunately, the disease just keeps lingering and has consequences that are irreversible.”

Watch: Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory—On guard against disease