Purdue University Veterinary Medical
VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1
July J 991
Its Here!
New ADDL Dedicated
It's built and is now occupied and operating!! The opening of the new $10.7
million Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL), a two-year building project, was celebrated by a dedication ceremony on June 11, 1991. Dr. H. Leon
Thacker. director of the laboratory, who
also serves on a committee of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory
Diagnosticians to review and accredit
diagnostic laboratories throughout the
U.S.. stated at the dedication. "This facility is state-of-the-art. There is none better
in the country." Thacker acknowledged
the pivotal role of many groups to gain
funding for the building - - in particular,
he listed the Indiana Board of Animal
Health, the Office of the State Veterinarian, the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association, Purdue administrators in central
administration, the Agricultural Experiment Station, the School of Agriculture,
and the School of Veterinary Medicine, as
well as many animal agriculture groups
such as the Indiana Farm Bureau. Indiana
Farmers Union. Indiana Pork Producers
Association. Indiana State Poultry Association, Indiana Beef Cattle Association.
Indiana Sheepbreeders Association, and
the Indiana State Dairy Association. Key
liaison officials in the lobbying effort for
the building were John Huie, vice-president for state relations and chief lobbyist
for Purdue, and Terry Strueh. assistant to
the dean of the School of Agriculture.
The new four-floor brick building, located on the southwestern portion of the
SVM complex, has 34.000 square feet of
assignable space - over twice that of the
old facility. The 68 faculty, graduate students, and staff employed in the laboratory
will have a modern, roomy, pleasant, and
safe work environment to optimize their efficiency to deliver the diagnostic services
and also support the research and teaching
activities that are crucial to Indiana and U.S.
animal industry and veterinary medicine.
Environmental safety was stressed in the
planning and equipping of the facility - a
variety of infectious and toxic agents may be
safely manipulated in laboratories with
modern biosafety hoods, and the large modern necropsy facilities have capability for
incineration of contaminated carcasses and
tissues and treatment of waste water. The
building is accessible via a new road along
the west side of the old ADDL Building - the
main entrance is on the west side of the building, and animals are received for necropsies
at the south end.
The new building space is allocated as
70% to laboratories and laboratory support
and 30% to offices. The various function
units of the laboratory are located as follows:
1 st floor - receiving, necropsy, histology, serology, administrative offices, and conference room: 2nd floor - avian pathology,
mammalian pathology, virology, and computer services; 3rd floor - microbiology and
toxicology; basement - electron microscopy
and incinerator facility.
The dedication ceremonies included presentations by President Steven C. Beering;
Lt. Governor Frank L. O' Bannon; Dr.
Robert D. McDavitt. chairman of the Indiana
Board of Animal Health: Dean Hugh B.
Lewis; Dean Robert L.Thompson; Director
H. Leon Thacker:  and Dr. Carol A. Eckcr.
member of the Board of Trustees. Further
events of the day included a ribbon-cutting
ceremony, unveiling of a building plaque,
presentation of materials for a time capsule,
a reception, and building tours. The event
was held in a large tent adjacent to the new
building and was attended by a crowd estimated at 300 that included many representatives of Indiana agricultural and veterinary
organizations and the Purdue School of Agriculture, as well as many faculty, staff, and
students of the School of Veterinary Medicine and the ADDL. Special guests were
retired SVM faculty: Drs. Harold Amstutz.
Charles Armstrong. Robert Claflin. Donald
Gustafson, Russell Jones. Edward Haelter-
man. Edwin Page, and Lewis Runnels.
The new building will provide the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory with the
physical facilities to meet the challenges of
the 21 st century. The laboratory is dedicated
to rapid delivery of accurate test results to
monitor and protect the health of the individual animals, herds, and flocks of Indiana. Furthermore, the facilities will allow
us to provide expanded diagnostic services to the rapidl) growing avian and aq-
uaculture industries of the state and to
conduct laboratory and field investigations of emerging new disease threats to
animals and people, including Lyme disease, "mystery swine disease." hemorrhagic syndrome in calves. Salmonella
enteriditis infections of chickens, and
Potomac horse fever.
We are understandably proud of our
new facilities and invite you to share this
feeling as you visit Purdue and utilize our
services. We have entered an exciting
and challenging new era in the delivery of
efficient and modern diagnostic services
to Indiana animal owners.
Fts Coming!
Bonding Authority Granted for Major SVM Addition
June 13. 1991. will long be remembered as one of the most important days in
the history of the School of Veterinary
Medicine. At approximately midnight
the Indiana State Senate joined the House
of Representatives in approving a budget
proposal which included bonding authority for a $33 million addition to the School.
By signing the bill into law. the governor
assured the first major facility improvement in the Veterinary School's 30-year
history, thereby ending a successful three-
year campaign to convince the state and
its lawmakers that such an addition was
indeed essential.
As detailed in a previous Update, the
addition will be attached to Lynn Hall
through the Teaching Hospital and will
add approximately 70.000 square feet to
our existing facilities. New space will include a 10.000 square-foot library/self
study center, several new lecture rooms,
state-of-the-art teaching laboratories, and
conference and round rooms for the clinical years. Numerous special procedures
rooms and additional waul space will be
added to the small animal hospital while
the large animal hospital will add a therio-
genology unit and ward space, a production
medicine unit, and space for an equine treadmill facility. Ten new molecular biology research laboratories, a clinical research center, and an additional animal housing unit
will all be a part of the addition. Part of the
money will he used for renovation within
Lynn Hall and the old ADDL. which became
a part of the SVM complex when ADDL
moved into their new facilities June 1 1.
"News of the building addition could not
have come at a more opportune time," said
Dean Hugh Lewis. "Ourcurrent facilities are
clearly overcrowded and outmoded. The
new addition, coupled with the completion
of the new ADDL and our space in the Life
Science Research Building, will make our
programs competitive as we look ahead to
the 21st century. The news will certainly
help as we meet with the AVMA accreditation team this fall."
The dean also noted that the funding drive
could not have been accomplished without
the help of veterinarians, agricultural support groups, and veterinary clients and friends
throughout the state. "We are sincerely thank
ful to the School of Agriculture. SVM faculty, staff, and students, and all of our supporters for their efforts on our behalf." Lewis
said. "In a very real way. the new building
belongs to all of you. The funding drive has
brought us closer to all of our constituents
around Indiana, and we intend to build on
these relationships as we look to the future."
The dean further commented that while the
plans for the new building address the SVM's
space needs, they do not solve the problem of
modernizing the School's clinical, educational, and research equipment. A new
committee will be developed to identify and
prioritize equipment needs for the new facility. With the University preparing to launch
a major fund-raising campaign, the timing is
ideal to focus on new equipment as its major
development target.
With funding for the new facility assured, the School now enters the phase of
building design and construction. During
the summer of 1991. SVM and Purdue Physical Plant representatives will meet with architects to begin to translate our facility needs
and objectives into a specific floor plan.
Several site visits to other veterinary schools
are anticipated to help both the architects
and the staff take advantage of the recent
experiences of others. Architectural drawings for the building addition should be
completed by the fall of 1992.
During the fall of 1992. contractors
will study the architectural drawings and
provide construction bids for the facility.
If the bids are acceptable and approved by
the Board of Trustees, construction could
begin as early as November 1992. If bids
are high, architectural plans will have to
be redrawn, and programmatic needs may
need to be reprioritized. This process
could delay groundbreaking into the spring
of 1993.
Once construction begins, approximately two years will be required for
completion. A number of logistical problems will have to be addressed during the
construction process. Attaching the new
addition to the hospital while keeping the
hospital fully operational presents the
greatest challenge. Moving faculty offices, the library, and research laboratories all must be accomplished as smoothly
as possible. A final completion date of
late 1994 or early 1995 is projected.