The California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, based at the University of California, Davis received $1.89m from the federal Food Emergency Response Network.
The money will increase capacity of the lab’s toxicology services to respond to contamination threats to the food supply involving food animals and for day-to-day diagnostic and early detection activities.
“Without the network’s support, we could not provide many of the current analytical toxicology services that are vital to protecting the food supply and ensuring public health,” said Robert Poppenga, a toxicologist at the UC Davis lab.
The lab’s toxicologists have responded to several events in the last 10 years, such as testing seafood for carcinogenic compounds called polyaromatic hydrocarbons following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and imported protein sources for melamine in 2008.
The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine operates the laboratory system on behalf of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. It also includes diagnostic laboratories in San Bernardino, Tulare and Turlock.
The laboratory system is the only veterinary diagnostic laboratory funded by the Food Emergency Response Network and one of 14 network labs in the US receiving support over the last 10 years totaling more than $4.5m.