Press Release: GAH Phase II

Global Animal Health Building, Phase II

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY, College of Veterinary Medicine

Artist's concept of Global Animal Health Phase 2 facilities.

Phase II of the Global Animal Health Building (GAH2) will directly adjoin the Phase I (Allen Center) building completed in 2013. The Allen Center was completed with only $6.2M of state investment via bonds coupled with $51M in private funding ($37M dedicated for construction funding). Phase II construction will house the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) and the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health disease detection and surveillance program.

WSU-WADDL is a state, regional, and national reference laboratory that provides animal disease detection in all species, promotes regional and international trade through “proof of negative” testing for animal industries, identifies diseases transmissible from animals to humans as a “first alert”, and keeps foods safe to eat for humans by providing food safety testing. The laboratory is the only internationally accredited veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Washington State. As such, WADDL is a disease surveillance laboratory on the front lines of our region’s and nation’s defense against emerging and foreign diseases and food-borne illness.

The WADDL program is integral to the mission of the Allen School for Global Animal Health, which emphasizes the integration of research, education and disease control at the animal-human interface. GAH2 will include contemporary diagnostic laboratories, research and development laboratories, and an instructional laboratory for educating veterinary (DVM) students, post-DVM and other health professionals, graduate, and undergraduate students. The instructional laboratories provide a unique opportunity for learning modern disease diagnostic and surveillance techniques and biosafety/biosecurity practices in an active, high quality, working diagnostic laboratory.

Since occupying the Bustad Hall laboratories in 1978, WADDL has grown into one of the premier animal disease diagnostic laboratories in the nation. GAH2 will provide the enhanced facility sample security and workflow, biosafety, and biosecurity (animal, public and environmental health) required for the testing capacity, complexity and regulatory compliance of a modern medical testing laboratory. The facility will also optimize synergy of the Allen School and WADDL to develop 21st century animal and human diagnostic tests, implement innovative infectious disease surveillance tools, and train the next of generation scientists and diagnosticians to advance global health security.

CONTACT:
If you have questions regarding the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Allen Center facility or WADDL please contact Laura Lockard, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at laura.lockard@wsu.edu.