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Last Updated on Thursday, 06 October 2011 17:34

Laramie – Coming in on time and under budget, on Nov. 19 the new biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) lab in Laramie was formally dedicated.
Governor Dave Freudenthal, UW President Tom Buchanan and other members of state and university leadership attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“The addition, like the  Wyoming State Vet Lab itself,” said Frank Galey, UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources dean, “will serve multiple purposes. It will provide the multiple tools necessary for us to help Wyoming’s citizens and state government with animal health issues, and it will provide a safe and legal environment for faculty to conduct research and to do the diagnostic testing expected of a fully accredited and national recognized veterinary laboratory.”

The new $25 million BSL-3 lab space will allow research into select agents, including brucellosis. Since the Department of Homeland Security was established following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, research with live Brucella abortus bacteria can be conducted only in BSL-3 laboratories.

Galey said the addition and remodeled labs in the original building will serve many agencies, including the State Veterinary Lab, the Wyoming Livestock Board, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Department of Veterinary Sciences on the UW campus.

Groundbreaking for the facility was last June. The 20,000-square-foot addition contains a 1,280-square-foot BSL-3 lab and a 2,600-square-foot BSL-2 lab, plus other work rooms. The 5,860-square-foot renovation of the existing Department of Veterinary Sciences building, which houses the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory, includes modifications of the existing BSL-2 lab and conference and administrative offices.

“This laboratory is part of a large vision we have at UW, and the focus we have on diseases and the health of animals, both wildlife and domestic, and the nexus between those groups,” said Galey, who leads the Wyoming Brucellosis Coordination Team, established by Freudenthal in 2004. “Despite the fact we’re not a veterinary school, we’re the only program in the country focused specifically on wildlife diseases in large wild ungulates like elk and deer and large domestic livestock. It’s important not only to this state, but also to the region and nation.”

“Wyoming is one of the key places where free roaming wildlife interact regularly with livestock, and it makes good sense for Wyoming and UW to be one of the few places that focus on diseases that impact the two,” said UW President Buchanan. “It makes sense for Wyoming to take care of its important industries, and this will help.”

“This state will probably have to be a leader among the states and this nation to figure out how we’ll solve the issue of brucellosis and the interaction of livestock and large ungulates, because there are no policy alternatives other than figuring out some scientific way to deal with it,” said Freudenthal.

The Governor added that the new lab space will also allow for more effective conversations with Idaho, Montana and the federal government.

“It has allowed me to advocate aggressively that we end up with a research agenda relating to these diseases, and in particular, brucellosis,” he said. “We can’t advocate that when they look at us and ask where we’re going to do the work. I have an answer now.”

Currently the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has more than six researchers and numerous graduate students working on issues related to prion diseases. That includes Hermann Schatzel, Wyoming Excellence Chair in Prion Biology. Schatzel’s specialty is in the study of prions, the proteins that underlie chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk. The same class of protein also causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and scrapie in sheep.

“We have researchers, graduate students and a host of great faculty already in this facility, but it’s not about the facilities, it’s about what happens inside them,” said Buchanan, noting that including Hermann Schatzel is one of the other investments Wyoming has made in the brucellosis eradication effort.
Buchanan said the BSL-3 capabilities will lead to improved modeling, testing, diagnosis, treatment and vaccine development. “All things that should be good for Wyoming,” he said.

“The new laboratory significantly enhances the university’s ability to provide work safety and efficiency for our faculty, our staff and our graduate students,” said UW Trustee Jim Neiman, adding it’s also valuable in recruiting and provides greater opportunity for graduate students to move up in their careers.

“The primary responsibilities of a land grand institution are research and outreach, and they’re extremely important missions to the university, and this lab is the perfect example of that research institution goal,” added Neiman.

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Last Updated on Friday, 03 April 2009 08:42

Written by Christy Hemken

Laramie – New lab facilities recently approved by the Wyoming Legislature will be open to all faculty members in the University of Wyoming’s Veterinary Science Department as well as those involved with the Wyoming State Veterinary Lab (WSVL).
    The primary motivation for the new lab facilities is the expanded Biosecurity Level 3 (BSL-3) lab space, which will enable UW researchers to expand both their research and their funding sources through the multi-state agency project.
    WSVL Director Don Montgomery says after construction the lab will be able to handle diagnostics for diseases such as brucellosis, plague and tularemia, diseases with which work has been very limited in the past.
    “After working on this for about two years we’ve already got a final set of designs and floor plans that will be used,” says Montgomery. “They hope to begin with dirt work as early as May or June, and start pouring concrete in June sometime.”
    Montgomery estimates $16 to $17 million of the $25 million appropriation will be spend on actual construction costs, with the remainder spent on design costs and other fees associated with the addition.
    Construction will progress in two phases to minimize the disruption of day-to-day activities in the lab. Two-thirds of the addition will be constructed initially, while finishing the addition and renovation to the existing building will be completed last.
    “One of the first things we’re going to do is get a new incinerator and get it commissioned so we can decommission the old one,” says Montgomery. “We hope to have little downtime, although there will obviously be some inconveniences.”
    “One of the main advantages of the new lab space will be a better, safer and more secure area for us to work and do our diagnostics when we have cases of chronic wasting disease, brucellosis, plague and tularemia,” says Montgomery. “Dr. Andrews will also be able to continue his research and take it to the next step.”
    Gerry Andrews, who’s worked on UW’s brucellosis research for the last four or five years, is on the lab’s user group steering committee to ensure the researchers’ needs and desires are met in regard to architecture and building. “We have the labs laid out the way we want them, and it’s going to be quite a change, and quite an improvement in terms of being able to expand and extend our capabilities,” he says.
    “We’ll have multiple biocontainment labs and up to three invitro labs for working on brucella, plague and tularemia,” says Andrews. The new space includes two small animals rooms under BSL-3 containment. “One is a procedure room with a Class 3 glovebox, which is fully filtered, to do procedures on small animals, rodents and rabbits, and we have an animal holding area right next to that procedure room.”
    Andrews notes the lab will now have small animal capabilities to work with fully virulent pathogens. “Currently we’re limited in our data to studying how the vaccine strain behaves in a surrogate animal. It’s a model that doesn’t exactly match nature, but it’s as close as we can get right now in terms of safety.”
    Andrews says the new facility will also make the program more competitive for large federal grants. “I think we’ve been severely limited because we’ve been competing against folks that have large biocontainment facilities to handle the small animals in numbers that will provide significant data.”
    “We’ve had this tiny little BSL-3 lab here, and we can’t do much with it. The addition will make us much more competitive for larger monies,” he adds.
    In the future of the lab, Andrews says there’s the potential to expand into other special agent pathogens. “Right now there’s no real good BSL-2 model for plague. There is a model, but it’s not very good and we decided not to even pursue it. Now we can go full biocontainment and use fully virulent strains.”
    Wyoming Livestock Board Director Jim Schwartz says he thinks the facility will prove important to both wildlife and livestock in Wyoming. Beyond vaccine research, he hopes to see development of a chute-side test for brucellosis. “We need better testing ability, and I think there are a lot of ways the lab can benefit the state on numerous issues. I think it’s exciting that we’ve had this level of support from the state.”
    Montgomery says the addition and renovations will address building security, with some public areas for general clients and delivery but the rest of the building secured. “We do work with diseases potentially contagious to humans and potentially harmful to livestock and wildlife, so we’ll prevent visitors from carrying that back,” he says.
    Tours of the facility with remain available, although they will be much more controlled than in the past. The lab will also still have student workers and lab demonstrations in the existing BSL-2 area, as well as a classroom in the public area.
    Christy Hemken is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Thursday, 07 February 2008 06:29

Written by Christy Hemken

Laramie – With a large investment in Laramie and many people working to study, examine and research livestock and wildlife diseases, the leadership of the University of Wyoming (UW) is once again calling for funding to construct a Biosecurity Level 3 (BSL3) lab in the state.
    “This is important work,” said UW President Tom Buchanan in a recent presentation to the Wyoming ag community. “The problem is growing and is compounded by increasingly complicated, and often capricious, federal regulations and by the well-justified concern by the public about how we treat and contain bacteria and viruses that produce the diseases with which you are all too familiar.”
    Because the facilities in Laramie that contain the research were constructed well before many of today’s diseases were recognized, Buchanan said the bottom line is that the facilities are insufficient for what needs to be done as the state and university move into the future.
    Three years ago funding was requested from the state to build the new lab facility. “The result was a study with the State Building Commission that considered facility costs in Cheyenne for public health and in Laramie for agriculture and livestock, which produced a cost estimate that’s far more than we seem to be able to afford this year, but the problem is still there,” said Buchanan.
    “We met with some private individuals and companies to do a conceptual design that would include a BSL3 laboratory,” says Wyoming State Vet Lab Director Don Montgomery. “It was a conceptual design process to address several of the problems we perceive for the future for our laboratory. Unfortunately that went way over the budget that was projected for us.”
    Instead, Montgomery says a proposal for a temporary modular BSL3 lab was forwarded to the Joint Appropriations Committee a few weeks ago, which has since requested additional information from university officials.
    “The modular lab doesn’t address all of our pressing needs, but it would provide us with some valuable additional lab space in the meantime,” he explains.
    Montgomery points out that in addition to a better and larger BSL3 facility – the current facility consists of a small room as part of a larger building – the lab needs an area large enough for postmortem examinations on animals with high-impact diseases.
    “We have a very small room we call our ‘Closet’ that is the current BSL3 lab, and it’s 125 square feet,” he says. The current proposal for a modular lab would not allow any postmortem work, either.
    “There are also additional concerns, because BSL3 labs don’t operate alone,” he adds. “They require the support of less secure lab facilities so researchers don’t have to shower in and shower out every time they come and go. The BSL3 lab does require the support of BSL2 labs and that’s where a lot of the work is.”
    Until a high-impact pathogen is isolated it’s not considered at BSL3 level. “Once it’s isolated it has to be handled in a BSL3 lab and if we want to do additional work we have to do that in the secure lab,” explains Montgomery.
    There are several pathogens in Wyoming that are a part of the list of organisms at BSL3 level, including plague, tularemia, and Q fever, which is caused by an organism inducing abortions in small ruminants.
    Brucellosis is also classified as a BSL3 level organism. “There are some requests to remove brucellosis from the list, but the problem with brucella bacteria is that it’s on the ‘Select Agent’ list meaning it’s an agent that biowarfare people might use,” says Wyoming State Veterinarian Walt Cook. “We don’t think that’s very plausible, but because it’s on the list it’s got to be in the secure lab.”
    Along with the request to remove brucellosis from the list, another request asks for exemption so the state can do some research on it in the current lab facilities.  
    “I want you to hear loud and clear from UW that the lab facility will remain a priority for the University of Wyoming. This isn’t because we need another building - it’s because we have a commitment to work with you as partners in preventing, diagnosing and eradicating the diseases that plague your livelihood,” said Buchanan in his address.
    “It’s part of a long-term concentrated effort on the part of UW to make sure that we provide the support that your industry deserves,” he continued. “If you have the opportunity, join us in supporting this budget request until we get the job done.”
    “Right now our needs are for BSL3 space and additional and more secure lab space,” says Montgomery. “A modular would be a major improvement, but it’s important the Legislature realizes the limitations of the building.”
    Christy Hemken is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Thursday, 06 October 2011 17:34

Written by Heather Hamilton

Inactivated vaccines were the first form of injectable livestock disease control, but when new technology created modified live vaccines, many producers switched, as at the time they were considered more effective.

However, inactivated vaccines today have improved, and offer a much higher level of control than they did historically, says Dr. H. Nielson, DVM, of Novartis Animal Health. Prior to his association with Novartis, Nielson practiced in Utah for 31 years.

“Historically, there were a couple problems with inactivated vaccines. One being that during the inactivation process the protein of the virus they were trying to stimulate was destroyed. This resulted in a vaccine for a bug that didn’t look much like the bug infecting the host animal.

“Another problem was that they had a carrier that was allen-based and didn’t stimulate the immune process well, so we had a vaccine that didn’t look much like the disease we were trying to prevent, because it was destroyed during the inactivation process and it didn’t stimulate the immune system,” explains Nielson.

When modified live vaccines became available, they were grown in the body and stimulated the body more effectively for the disease. But, as with inactivated vaccines, they weren’t without problems.

“Sometimes modified live vaccines would get wild strains that resulted in a disease even worse than the one we were trying to prevent. There are times that’s still a problem,” comments Nielson.

Other problems associated with modified live vaccines include abortions in cattle when the cow isn’t vaccinated properly.

“New inactivated vaccines are an adjuvanted product and use an oil-based carrier and can stimulate an immune response better. It’s also an intact organism that invades the body, which creates a better response to the disease,” says Nielson.

He explains that a lot of improvements to livestock vaccines were made when HIV came front-and-center in the world of human medicine.

“They wanted to produce a vaccine that would be advantageous and prevent infection, so they started developing adjutants, or carriers, with the idea to inactivate the virus and still stimulate the immune system. There were no takers on doing that with HIV, but the development of those carriers became first and foremost in the effort to drive the immune system with a vaccine that was inactivated and completely safe,” explains Nielson.

According to Nielson, there is a place for both inactive and modified live vaccines in the livestock industry today.

“As an industry we’ve gotten too far to one side, where everyone thinks it has to be modified live or it doesn’t work. That just isn’t the case with these newer inactivated vaccines,” he says.

Nielson suggests, as a rule of thumb, using modified live vaccines when developing young animals, especially breeding heifers. Then, once that female enters the cowherd, inactivated vaccines can be used for the rest of her life.

“It’s important to realize that both sides of vaccinology are important and stimulate the immune system. It’s a matter of using the vaccines at the proper time in the proper type of animal,” he adds.

As for what’s next in the vaccine world, Nielson says technology is definitely evolving.

“Next will be site specific vaccines, where they will stimulate an immune response specifically where the virus invades the body. Vaccines will also continue to be driven orally at some time and maybe inter-nasally. Long term will be feeding of antigens and having them target the sites where the virus would be most active,” he says.

Heather Hamilton is editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .