WVDL’s TSE Staff Recognized by DNR

DNR Presents Special Recognition Award to WVDL Staff


DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management Extends High Praise to TSE Staff

 

The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (WVDL) was recently honored for its exemplary service provided to the DNR and its Bureau of Wildlife Management.   The WVDL’s Pathology Sciences Department has played an integral role in chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance over the years in addition to providing necropsy services to aid in the maintenance of wildlife health.  Dan Barr, WVDL Pathology Sciences supervisor, and staff microbiologist Ben Johnson attended the awards banquet on June 13th and accepted the award on behalf of the WVDL as presented by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Management Team.

In 2016, The WVDL tested 6,127 samples from wild deer for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) for the WI DNR.  A majority of the CWD positive samples (442) were from the Southern Farmland zone, 4 came from the Central Forest Zone and 1 from the Central Farmland Zone.  In the last 12 months, the WVDL has tested 34,496 animals from 22 states for CWD, Scrapie or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, Mad Cow Disease).

The following was written and released by the DNR staff. 

The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL) has been a long standing partner with the DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management’s Wildlife Health necropsy program as well as chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance.  CWD sampling has changed quite a bit throughout the years but one thing has remained constant and that is WVDL’s excellent service.

The wildlife program and WVDL have been able to form a great relationship through the years of CWD surveillance.  We are fortunate to have the laboratory located in Madison which allows for routine face to face interactions and yearly planning meetings.  Communication from WVDL’s staff is top notch.  The TSE lab also processes samples from many other states but whenever they are contacted you can expect a reply back almost immediately.

WVDL goes above and beyond what would normally be expected.  They worked with our program to set up automatic submissions of the results and spent their own time and resources working through the process.  They have also worked with us on unique processes for our samples.

WVDL has a vested interest in the Wisconsin CWD data.  Every year they have worked with our program staff to brainstorm ways to lower the CWD testing turnaround time.  For the 2016 season the department, along with WVDL, was able to lower the turnaround time by over four days (13.9 to 9.6) from the 2015 season.  The most pronounced improvement in turnaround time was for CWD positive results in the Southern Farmland Zone where the decrease was from 20.2 days to 8.2 days.  This dramatic decrease was due to the DNR approving WVDL’s proposal to post results from the rapid CWD test (ELISA) directly to the website.

The Department of Natural Resources and our Wildlife Management Program are very fortunate to have a partner in WVDL.  Our CWD data has been improved by their consistent and exceptional efforts.  We would like to recognize their efforts with the 2016 Bureau of Wildlife Management Special Service Award.

 

Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab Pathology Sciences Staff – Front row: Ben Johnson, Dan Barr, Sophia Miranda, Elizabeth Hare and Ashlee Moulton; Back row: Dr. Doug Lyman, Dr. Hui-Min Hsu, Kristin Campbell, Dr. Kathleen Deering, David LaBeause, Jennifer Swan, Jarin Ryland, Brent Boynton and Lin Schure.  Not pictured: Dr. Phil Bochsler, Dr. Holly Taylor, Xin Wang and Daniel Finlay

 

 

 

 

 

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