Groundbreaking is set in two weeks for the new South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Lab at SDSU in Brookings. ADRDL Director Dr. Jane Christopher Hennings says the upgrade lab will be able to do much more testing and research than they could do when the original lab was built in 1967 and upgraded in 1993.

She says their new ADRDL will be able to test for a number of diseases that impact the entire region, not just South Dakota.

Hennings says they do testing for several species including swine, cattle, poultry and aquaculture

Groundbreaking ceremonies begin August 31 at 4:30 pm on the south lawn of the SDSU Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences building. Construction will take place this fall and in the spring of 2018 with completion of the project in 2020.