Kansas State urges $130 million state appropriation to replace aging veterinary diagnostic lab

President Richard Linton of Kansas State University told a joint House–Senate appropriation subcommittee that the Kansas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory needs a new facility and asked the state to fund the full cost of construction.

Linton said the lab — which performs about 500,000 diagnostic tests annually, employs roughly 110 people, and was built in 1967 — provides services that support Kansas’ $57 billion livestock and food sector. He quoted an independent economic study that found the lab generates an estimated $2.51 billion in annual economic impact and about $25.7 million in state tax revenue in a typical year.

Linton said: "Based on the detailed analysis presented in this report, it is evident that the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is a critically important and high impact asset for the state of Kansas." He told lawmakers the report recommended new facilities and infrastructure to sustain and expand services.

Why it matters: The diagnostic lab supports disease diagnosis, food-safety testing, surveillance for foreign and zoonotic threats (diseases…