Carthage Diagnostic Laboratory – Open House

Carthage Veterinary Service, LTD. has a new diagnostic laboratory on the Carthage campus.

Stanton Hall, which was formerly the Home Economics building of the old Robert Morris College, is now home to the Carthage Diagnostic Laboratory.  The building had also been used as a daycare facility by previous owners.

There was a ribbon cutting to debut the facility on Monday, April 24.

The new molecular laboratory replaces a smaller facility that was previously located in the main office and allows Carthage Veterinary Service to expand its laboratory services to their clients by now running samples in-house instead of sending to third party laboratories for analysis.

The Carthage Diagnostic Laboratory is capable of running rt-PCR (Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction) assays as well as ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) assays that are used to monitor the health status of swine herds. The in-house testing will allow quicker turnaround of results allowing the veterinarian to implement needed actions sooner.

Staff members will still use third party labs for testing on tissue samples, sequencing, and non-routine PCR assays.  The Carthage lab will handle routine screenings.

Same-day results will now be available to clients of CVS.

“Shipping time is a large part of how long it takes for results,” lab manager Nicole Eddy said.

“Only a few veterinary companies have their own private lab in the United States,” General Manager Brad Dixon said.  “It is exciting to bring additional science based jobs to the county through this new facility.”

As part of the expansion, two additional team members will be added to the team to assist with sample processing and diagnostic data management, according to Eddy.

Over the past several years, CVS has spent time enhancing the looks of the former college campus to revitalize a part of Carthage that hadn’t been maintained in the past.

The company continues to expand each year, and currently employs over 100 people in Carthage.

 

This article was adapted from Emma VanArsdale’s article in the April 26th edition of the Hancock County Journal Pilot (http://www.journalpilot.com/)