Stacy Pollock, manager of the Minnesota Poultry Testing Laboratory (MPTL) in Willmar, Minn., was recently awarded the 2019 Outstanding Performance Award for Diagnostic Services. The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) presented Pollock with this award for the many contributions from her 25-year career, especially in 2015 and 2016 when a national outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza and complete facility renovation shook up the MPTL.

“I am grateful for the recognition,” Pollock says, “but performing this well under pressure requires a solid team of professionals and that’s what we have in Willmar and St. Paul. So, I’m accepting this award on behalf of the entire team.”

The MPTL, which is part of the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, also includes staff of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health to ensure coordinated communication and services for Minnesota’s poultry industry. The MPTL and VDL provide rapid diagnosis of animal diseases, identify emerging diseases, develop new diagnostic methods, and train diagnosticians and veterinarians.

The VDL’s staff was on the front lines for providing diagnostic services to Minnesota’s poultry industry during the national outbreak of avian influenza in 2015. With its location in the heart of Minnesota’s poultry community, the MPTL and Pollock’s team became a hub for everything related to the outbreak. After receiving $8.2 million from the Minnesota Legislature for a total renovation and expansion of the facility, Pollock led the team in packing up the lab, moving it down the street and re-opening for service, and then returning to new laboratories and offices in 2016.

“Those years were incredibly disruptive, and uncharted territory for our office,” says Dale Lauer, DVM, assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, who works at the MPTL with Pollock. “Through it all, our services did not falter one bit. Stacy’s leadership kept us on task to provide the level of diagnostic support that our poultry industry requires.”