By NANCY LYBARGER
Indiana Correspondent

DUBOIS, Ind. — Inside the walls of this concrete block building, critical research is happening on a much larger scale than the humble structure would infer. Several important discoveries have been made here in the four decades since the facility opened as the SIPAC Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) to help a young poultry industry in the southern part of the state.

Doctors Tom Bryan and Duane Murphy are co-directors of the labs, renamed in 1999 for the late state representative, Dennis Heeke. The lab expanded in 1977 to serve mammalian livestock. A new building was dedicated on Sept. 11 that will house an extension forester, a USDA wildlife-APHIS representative and provide meeting space for livestock producer groups, according to Jerry Fankhauser, director of the Purdue Ag Centers, eight regional farms throughout Indiana.

Murphy said the center, even though poultry disease research is still important, now works with zoo animals, fish, goats, cattle and hogs.

The labs work with a broad spectrum of animal production industries, he said, from cattle producers to pet shop operators. The goal is to help producers get the most from their animals by keeping them healthy.

Heeke ADDL scientists are credited with the 1994 discovery of the coronavirus in turkeys. After recognizing the disease, the lab set out to help turkey producers eliminate the disease in their flocks. Today the disease is rare in Indiana turkeys.

Murphy, a pathologist, in 2005, recognized a foreign animal disease, rabbit hemorrhagic disease in wild Indiana rabbits. After the discovery, again Heeke ADDL scientists set to work to eliminate the disease. It has been eradicated in the state, according to Stephen Hooser, Purdue University professor of veterinary medicine and director of Purdue’s ADDL.

A diagnostic pathologist, Murphy, who served as a veterinarian in private practice in Vincennes and at the Purdue ADDL, said the staff at Heeke also investigates suspicious deaths in domestic animals. If owners or their veterinarians suspect a malicious cause of death, Murphy and his pathology team set up as forensic pathologists.
He said there is a fairly high incidence of poisoning cases they see at Heeke.

Heeke’s territory covers an area from Terre Haute on the far west side of the state to Bloomington and on down to Cincinnati, according to Murphy. He said the labs charge a user fee for such services, such as the $75 for an autopsy.

“It doesn’t cover the cost,” he said.

As an avian diagnostician, Bryan heads the poultry research arm of the Heeke facility. He arrived at the center in 1981 after stints with DeKalb and Central Soya. He graduated from Kansas State University at Manhattan.

His office previously was the necropsy room before the 1977 addition. Since he joined the staff at Heeke, he’s seen several changes and advances in research practices.

The most productive change, he said, is the florescent antibody test (FA) used on turkey coronavirus. Keeping coronavirus under control, Bryan said, allows turkeys to use their food more efficiently, so they gain more weight in a shorter period, with less food consumed.

The peak year for FA testing, he said, was 32,934 in 2001.
Bryan said the staff adapted the procedure from a 1972 research journal. Necessary reagents came from Ohio State University and he adapted the FAs for Heeke.

For the most part, Bryan said, coronavirus has been eliminated. It currently exists only in pockets nationwide.

“There’s a feed conversion difference of 20-25 points,” he said of birds without coronavirus. “Where it was costing producers 2.9, for instance, the cost dropped to 2.65. It was costing them more to raise a pound of turkey.”

There were 2080 flocks examined at Heeke labs in 2008, according to the Annual Report of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory for Fiscal Year 2008. A total of 33,635 exams on birds were conducted, the report indicated.

Bryan said when an animal is brought in for examination, it is grossly examined and a preliminary report presented to the owner. Usually within three weeks, a complete report is delivered.
“Usually our first impressions on the diagnostic table are the most useful to the producer,” he said.

SIPAC farm

Another aspect of the research facility is the ag production side. Jason Tower is the farm manager at SIPAC, directing the care of the resident cattle, goats and fish. He lives with his family on the 1,300 acres of hilly farm that borders Patoka Lake on the dam side.

Currently the beef herd is 210 head of commercial grade stock. About 100 goats live here, as well.

Tower said he is in charge of the research projects Purdue faculty members are conducting. This summer he’s working with a fly control study in cattle and a dairy heifer development on pasture project. The goats are in their second year of a study to reduce parasites through controlled grazing. He’s also doing a selenium test on the goats.

He’s also working with a feeding demonstration to show producers how to utilize a farm pond. The farm is host to between 18-20 ponds which Tower estimates will produce up to 2,000 mature fish this year. This summer, the farm has been selling tilapia, rainbow trout and largemouth bass at the farmers market each Saturday in Jasper.