(File Photo of the Penn State Beaver Logo)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Monaca, PA) Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding and Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Dr. Troy Ott celebrated a milestone for Pennsylvania farmers as a ribbon cutting was held to open the Keystone Animal Diagnostic Center at Penn State University’s Beaver Campus today at 11 a.m. at the Michael Baker Building. The lab will expand the capacity of Pennsylvania to respond to animal disease outbreaks, speeding diagnoses for farmers in the western part of the state, lowering their business costs, and helping protect their animals and investments funded by a $6 million investment from Governor Josh Shapiro’s bipartisan 2024-2025 budget. This new lab is the first to join the Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System since the state established the partnership in 1991 to more effectively protect human and animal health across the state and region. It joins the system’s three cutting-edge labs, which are the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Pennsylvania Veterinary Laboratory in Harrisburg, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences’ Animal Diagnostic Laboratory in University Park, and the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in Kennett Square. These three labs are all members of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network.