California State Lab to Close, Lay Off 20

The state-run California Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory in Fresno will shut down after 59 years, making 20 people unemployed.

The lab, managed by the University of California, Davis, served local veterinarians and horse, livestock and poultry producers, providing pathology, bacteriology and virology.

Reduced state funding is being blamed for the closure. Eighty percent of the labs funding came from the California Department of Agriculture.