How Penn State Beaver is helping farmers respond sooner to animal health challenges

After a cold winter in western Pennsylvania, Old English Acres Farm owner Ed Clark noticed something was off with his herd of cattle.

Several cows weren’t gaining weight normally, but the cause wasn’t immediately clear. Clark first tried treating the issue himself, giving the animals mineral supplements while sending blood samples to Michigan for testing. Two weeks later, the results pointed to a trace-mineral deficiency.

The diagnosis kicked off a months-long process of adjusting mineral packs, testing feed and water quality and waiting through multiple rounds of results before fully understanding what was affecting the herd. By the end, nearly five months had passed between the first samples and the final management changes.

For farmers like Clark, the Keystone Animal Diagnostic Center (KADC) at Penn State Beaver was built to make earlier action possible. It’s the first new Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System facility built in decades, giving farmers, veterinarians and animal producers across western Pennsylvania closer access to testing and diagnostics.

Had he been able to send samples to the KADC, Clark said, he could have started acting on the problem much sooner, reducing both farm costs and the time his cattle were unwell.

“If you’re not feeling good, do you want to be sick for three or four months,” Clark said, “or do you want to be sick for four weeks?”

Six hours off the farm

Before the KADC opened, the nearest lab in Pennsylvania’s diagnostic system sat more than three hours away, and the state hadn’t added a new lab to that network in 35 years. Testing often meant overnight shipping, hours off the farm and figuring out how to get samples to a distant lab before they degraded.

“A farmer is an accountant, a banker, a lawyer, a mechanic, a veterinarian. We’re all that in one person,” Clark said. “Time and money is where it’s going to be for us.”

That distance made testing feel less practical as part of routine herd management, he added. What could become an all-day process often meant weighing whether the trip, shipping costs and time away from the farm were worth it unless the situation became serious enough.

The KADC, operated by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, changes that by giving farmers a testing site close enough to fit into a normal workday.

“That opportunity to get a timely diagnosis rather than saying, ‘Well, we’re not going to bother getting a diagnosis,’ that’s important,” said Ernest Hovingh, Animal Diagnostic Laboratory director.

Earlier access to testing can mean the difference between a manageable issue and one that keeps spreading.

Why earlier answers matter

The stakes climb during serious illness or an outbreak when delays can carry much higher consequences.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 27 flocks in Pennsylvania tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza in 2026, affecting more than 7.6 million birds, with most cases concentrated in Lancaster County in the eastern part of the state. While western Pennsylvania hasn’t experienced a major outbreak of its own, farmers and veterinarians in the region have watched closely as the virus spread into dairy cattle in other parts of the country.

“We don’t have large chicken populations over here, but we are heavily beef and dairy operations,” Clark said. “So if something like that would come about again, it’d be nice having that lab close to be able to detect what’s truly going on.”

Troy Ott, Peter and Ann Tombros Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, emphasized that the facility reflects Penn State’s longstanding commitment to serving the commonwealth through research, innovation and outreach.

"This facility demonstrates our commitment to supporting farmers, veterinarians and communities across Pennsylvania," Ott said. "It strengthens our ability to provide timely, accurate diagnostic services, respond to emerging animal health challenges and uphold our responsibility to protect animal health while serving those who depend on it."

Diseases can spread quickly through animal populations. What starts with one sick animal can move through an entire herd, neighboring farms and, in some cases, into the broader food supply or even human populations.

“In Pennsylvania we have such mixed land use, agriculture, wildlife, humans, all in a specific area,” said Cassandra Miller-Butterworth, associate professor of biology at Penn State Beaver. “So if you have a disease popping up in animals, there’s a great chance for it to spill over into other species or into humans.”

Where the community meets the classroom

The lab's impact extends beyond farmers and veterinarians. It also creates new opportunities for students to learn alongside scientists.

“We believe very strongly that students learn science by doing science,” said Miller-Butterworth. “They’re not sitting in a lab following cookie-cutter recipes. They’re actually in a real-world lab, seeing real scientists do real things that have important consequences.”

That reach extends into the broader community as well. Recently, more than 100 K-12 students from across Beaver County participated in campus workshops in biology, health, information technology and engineering. In one biology session, students worked through a hands-on simulation showing how viruses spread and how vaccines work.

"In animal diagnostic labs, such as the KADC, we can do different types of testing of animal samples, but it's basically the same principle as testing human individuals or populations for the presence of disease," Hovingh told the students. “This is what you would do if you were testing for the presence of a virus in humans.”

That kind of community connection helped make the lab possible in the first place. The project came together in roughly two and a half years through a partnership among farmers, legislators, the governor’s office and Penn State.

The partnership continues to shape the lab’s future. Plans include a necropsy facility, expanded testing capabilities — including for avian flu — and continuing education opportunities for local producers and veterinarians. For many farmers, transporting an 800-pound animal several hours for examination simply isn’t realistic.

“Adding a fourth vet lab on a campus that is part of our top-notch land-grant university continues that tradition of excellence, strengthens our crisis response capacity and supports current regional growth in animal agriculture," said Russell Redding, Pennsylvania secretary of agriculture. "This expansion is more proof that investments by the Shapiro Administration are feeding Pennsylvania’s economic future and protecting our rich agricultural heritage.”

For Clark, the lab represents something larger than a new testing facility — it’s a long-term investment in the region’s agricultural community.

For now, the lab is a single building on a single campus, with samples arriving one box at a time. But for the farmers and veterinarians who depend on it, it’s one less thing that has to happen three hours away — and one more local resource close enough to use when it matters most.

About the series

This story is part of an ongoing Penn State News series exploring the Commonwealth Campuses and their connections to the communities they serve. The series highlights how campuses across Pennsylvania contribute to education, workforce development, research and regional engagement in unique and impactful ways.