Abstract
The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) is a nonprofit professional organization comprised of members primarily working in University and government animal health laboratories (AHLs). The broad mission of AAVLD is to advance the discipline of veterinary diagnostic laboratory science and to promote global animal health and One Health. With the declaration of the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic early in 2020, just like everyone else, our members suddenly were dealing with challenges not faced in over a century. Our perspective summarizes the journey through this highly unusual and challenging year from an organizational viewpoint for laboratories operating in the United States and gives us the impetus to further strengthen our collaborations with other organizations carrying out a similar mission in the United States and abroad.
The annual Spring AAVLD Executive Board meeting had just concluded in Las Vegas, and, by March 2020, SARS-CoV-2 was running rampant in Washington, California, and New York. State-by-state shutdowns to stop further spread of the virus were being instituted. Public AHLs generally remained open during the shutdown and were declared essential to ensure food security and animal health testing. While navigating the pandemic, some AHLs found themselves in a unique place, being asked to fill the void created by inadequate COVID-19 human testing capacity in many states. By the end of 2020, over 22 AAVLD-affiliated AHLs were busy conducting human specimen SARS-CoV-2 testing in some form (Table 1), while many other AHLs kept the offerings limited to animal COVID-19 testing. In several state AHLs, early human testing activity was intense, and authorization to conduct such testing was relatively seamless; in other states, authorization remained complicated to impossible. 4
COVID-19 testing: National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) laboratories.
Source: Christina M. Loiacono, NAHLN USDA.
As the pandemic unfolded, the growing need for technical information, advocacy, and communication among AHLs and laboratorians led to the creation of an AAVLD COVID task force in March 2020.1,5 To provide timely and easily accessible information, a COVID resource repository was soon created on the AAVLD website. The task force members participated in weekly calls with the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) and the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL). With reports of the SARS-CoV-2 binding receptor being homologous to the binding receptor in several animal species, it was just a matter of time before reports about animal infections started coming from North America and abroad. 6 As an organization we moved rapidly but with caution; selective testing of animals was advised to avoid diverting important resources from human testing where supplies were already short and virus impact was being felt worldwide with increased mortality reports.
AAVLD teamed up with the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA), National Association for State Animal Health Officials (NASAHO), American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), National Association of State Public Health Officials (NASPHO), and the NAHLN to create common messaging advice related to animal testing. The goal was to manage animal issues in households in which humans were infected, attempting to maintain an important balance between legitimate testing needs and managing fear. 2 NAHLN, NVSL, and the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC), in conjunction with AHLs, worked closely to develop reliable animal testing plans, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) perfected the testing strategy for humans. For the first time, One Health was in action at a much larger scale with the CDC One Health team also getting involved and the Food and Drug Administration Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (VET-LIRN) offering support for COVID-19 animal disease investigations.
Advocacy during this time was also critical, given that many labs were pressed into action without additional resources. Two important issues were: 1) having the financial support for expenses incurred with additional testing (working with our industry partners, the AVMA, and the Animal Agriculture Coalition, animal health infrastructure funding was secured with a federal bill inked early in 2021, but the distribution is still pending final decision 3 ); and 2) getting Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) certification for conducting human testing in AHLs. The certification requirement seemed to be a bureaucratic wall in many states, and, although capable and well prepared, not all states took advantage of the abilities of AHLs to solve their testing capacity problems. Despite these bureaucratic roadblocks, many AHLs eventually did find a way to contribute to the effort, and other labs offered indirect support with supplies, equipment, and personnel. In summary, this pandemic demonstrated the value of the One Health concept and the value of working together.
With operations in all of our labs continuing, keeping our staff safe and maintaining laboratory operations were not the only challenges. Hosting our annual AAVLD-USAHA meeting, which is vital for sharing technical expertise and operational strategies, became particularly challenging given travel health issues related to the pandemic. Initial hopes were that the pandemic would be waning by fall 2020. The pandemic was moving quickly across the Nation during the spring, and some states were discussing “reopening” during the summer. However, those hopes quickly faded and, by mid-summer, the onsite October annual meeting in Nashville was canceled. Fortunately, the meeting was quickly converted to an all-virtual format with over 1,449 attendees over a 2-wk period in October. Everyone missed the in-person contact, but the meeting’s success could be measured not only by attendance but by the completion of the business of both of the organizations during a time when there was so much to discuss and coordinate.
As we continue this journey to strengthen animal and human health, it is critical that as an organization we value each member, engaging them and ensuring the development of a positive workplace environment. The events of 2020 also prompted us to create a task force to focus on diversity and inclusion. The task force will assess where we as an organization stand and take steps that we remain committed to promoting these values for the years to come.
We have felt humbled with the experiences of the past year, and there are many lessons learned. We appreciate the considerable team effort it took to face the challenges of this past year. We salute and are proud of the membership and the AHLs in the many stories shared in our monthly AAVLD newsletters, which highlight their accomplishments during 2020, and how they have truly advanced the discipline of veterinary laboratory diagnostic sciences and operations via One Health activities.