Project Profile: Salisbury Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory

The modern facility features necropsy suites and a BSL3 lab

By: Megan Guilfoyle

Facility name and city location: Salisbury Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Salisbury, Maryland

Size: 19,178 sq. ft.

Cost: $19.8 million

Project team: Bancroft Construction (construction), EwingCole (architecture, engineering, design)

Completion date: March 2021 (anticipated)

The new Salisbury Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory will replace the department’s original lab, which was built in 1953 and is in need of major renovations. At nearly 20,000 square feet, the new lab provides larger work areas, public meetings and training facilities, two necropsy suites, a new incinerator, and a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) laboratory for advanced diagnostic work. 

In addition to expanding the lab’s capacity and capabilities, the new building will be LEED Silver certified and will have hook-ups for natural gas to improve the building’s energy efficiency and environmental stewardship.

The department works closely with state and federal counterparts, as well as private and commercial veterinarians, to protect Maryland’s agriculture industry against infectious diseases like avian influenza and equine infectious anemia. Specializing in poultry disease, the new Salisbury lab will play a critical role in regional efforts to safeguard the health of millions of birds on the Delmarva peninsula.

Megan Guilfoyle is the Public Information Officer at the Maryland Department of Agriculture.