New poultry facility planned in US 22 Aug 2008

The new facility will reportedly expand the space and the capacity for testing specimens submitted for poultry disease detection at the Gonzales lab.

Since 1991, the lab has been operated by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, a service agency of the Texas A&M System.

“We are extremely grateful for the generosity of our former poultry lab director Dr Sam Glass and his wife, Sally,” said Dr Tammy Beckham, director of the state veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory. “Their gift of a prime parcel of land in Gonzales will make this laboratory possible. Because it is strategically located in a major poultry production area, the laboratory will continue to serve primarily commercial poultry companies, as well as veterinarians and individual producers of domestic fowl, game and exotic birds," Beckham said.

“The routine diagnostic testing performed here also provides the surveillance necessary to detect and contain potential outbreaks of high-consequence diseases such as Exotic Newcastle Disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza,” she added.