Kansas

MANHATTAN — The samples that could determine the fate of Kansas’ economy come to a small backroom at the back of Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine at dusk and dawn, as they do at midday and midnight.They come hand-delivered by courier or in nondescript packages and United States Postal Services mailers.They come alongside other biological matter — individual samples of cancer in cats and viruses in dogs — all with varying levels of importance but certainly no lack of urgency.Because no matter the scope or scale, with animal lives on the line, nothing matters more than accurate and timely test results at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, or KSVDL.As the state’s largest and primary public veterinary diagnostics lab, the KSVDL is the laboratory clearinghouse that veterinarians around the state and country know and rely on to diagnose and track the diseases that could wreak havoc on individual households and the U.S.