Staff Turnover Means Farmers Can No Longer Get Animal Autopsies At State Lab

For decades, farmers in northwestern Wisconsin who lost a cow and suspected disease could get an animal autopsy — known as a necropsy — at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in the city of Barron. However, that’s no longer the case.

Pete Vanderloo, the lab’s interim director, said both vets who typically preformed the necropsies retired in February. Since then, he said they haven’t filled the vacancies.

“And the lab was faced with a situation of filling one or more of those positions. And we advertised for a pathologist, but we did not get any qualified applicants for the position,” said Vanderloo.

As a result, the lab’s Board of Directors ended necropsy services in Barron, which means private vets need to do the necropsies and send samples to another lab in Madison.

Farmers in northwestern Wisconsin say that hurts them because there aren’t as many large animal vets there as in other parts of the state.