The Minnesota Poultry Testing Lab (MPTL) in Willmar re-opens today (THU) after getting a state funded eight-and-a-half million dollar expansion.
The renovation of the MPTL came about as a result of the highly pathogenic avian influenza event that Minnesota Poultry producers experienced in 2015. MPTL’s Dr. Dale Lauer says the expansion provides new equipment and more laboratory space and will allow technicians to better conduct the testing required to diagnose bird flu.
Lauer says “all Minnesotans will benefit from this. A lot of people know the poultry industry in the state, whether it’s turkey, chicken egg layers, all have a voice, have diagnostic needs for poultry health.”
In 2015, avian flu resulted in the deaths of about nine-and-a-half million turkeys in Minnesota.