The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture’s Livestock Disease Diagnostic lab is now the UK Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (UKVDL). The name change was needed to reflect the broad focus of the lab, which includes services beyond livestock species.

“The UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is a full-service, animal-health diagnostic facility,” said Craig Carter, the lab’s director. “We hope our new name will better convey our mission to the public. With the former name, we felt ‘livestock’ implied food animals only and our reach extends beyond that. We also felt like ‘disease’ had a negative connotation. Also, the former name didn’t reflect the fact that we have veterinarians on staff and that we are a laboratory, not a clinic.”

Along with the name change, the UKVDL is designing a new website detailing all its services and information about faculty, staff, current animal health risk outlook and bulletins and test offerings. The website is http://vdl.uky.edu.

New clinical pathology tests are available to measure levels of progesterone, cortisol, Phenobarbital, thyroid hormones and canine trypsin-like immunoreactivity.

Lab hours for animal and specimen receiving are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Carter said he is grateful for clients’ patience as the faculty and staff of the UKVDL move into some of their new facilities, including the new clinical receiving and neocropsy areas. Carter said the lab is also gearing up to provide diagnostic services if needed during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the end of the month and into October.