Private sector leaves business | Lab will identify pest threats and diagnose physiological damage
Alberta Agriculture is hoping to open a new provincially funded diagnostics lab within the next few months.
Paul Laflamme, head of pest surveillance at the department’s Crop Diversification Centre North (CDC North) in Edmonton, said renovations are underway to make space for the new lab.
The new facility will diagnose weeds, insects, diseases and physiological problems in field crops on a fee-for-service basis.
It will not conduct quality tests on seed and feed that private sector labs already offer, he added.
“We have private labs that are doing (seed and feed tests) and they are doing an excellent job,” Laflamme said.
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“We’ll only be doing diagnostics. That’s something that was privatized by the province years ago but all the companies that took over (have since gone) out of business.”
He said government operates most agricultural diagnostics labs in Canada.
Diagnostics work in Alberta is now handled at a variety of locations across the West, including provincial laboratories in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, university labs and Agriculture Canada facilities.
“It’s something that private industry just can’t operate,” Laflamme said.
“There’s not enough profit in doing (diagnostics tests) … so it hasn’t been taken up by anyone. We’re trying to fill the void that’s been created.”
The province has not made a formal announcement about the new facility, but Laflamme said Alberta Agriculture is hoping it will be operational for the coming growing season.
The lab will provide insect, weed and disease identification and diagnose physiological damage caused by hail, frost, pesticide residues and other environmental factors.
It will also conduct soil bioassays for pesticide residues.
The lab will operate on a partial cost-recovery basis, which means tests will be conducted on a fee-for-service basis. However, all tests will be offered at a subsidized rate, as is the case at most diagnostics labs in Canada.
Laflamme said the lab will use classical diagnostic methods as well as DNA testing, putting it on par with the most modern diagnostics facilities in Canada.
The cost of establishing the new lab has not been made public.
“It’s basically if a farmer or an agrologist comes across a plant that’s diseased or if he thinks its being attacked by insects but he’s not sure what it is, he can send (a sample) in for identification.”
CDC North is an applied research station owned and operated by Alberta Agriculture.
It has been involved in Alberta crop research for more than 50 years.
