Why should the people of New York State invest tens of millions of dollars to build a facility at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine to diagnose and prevent animal diseases?
Let’s consider the alternatives:
Let’s consider the alternatives:
· Ten million cattle and sheep were slaughtered and their bodies burned in massive fires to eliminate foot and mouth disease in Britain a decade ago;
· Food poisoning caused illnesses for thousands of people in the recent outbreak of Salmonella-tainted eggs;
· Thousands of cats and dogs became sick and many died from pet food tainted with impurities from China;
· Dogs developed a new strain of influenza that caused pneumonia and death.
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| $70 million Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Opened Oct. 1 2010 |
These are the types of arguments that my colleagues and I made to the State of New York several years ago when I was dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. And why we rejoiced when Governor George Pataki visited Cornell in 2006 to announce the State appropriation for a new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to replace our aging facility that lacked the size and sophistication to monitor and control diseases that have increased in virulence and scope.
