AUGUSTA, Maine - Representatives from the state's agriculture, dairy, and veterinarian industries are calling on Maine voters to support Question 2 on the November ballot. The bond would give $8 million to the Maine Cooperative Extension to build a new animal and plant disease and insect control laboratory.
Executive Director John Rebar says, currently, the lab is spread across two locations that were built in the 1940s and 1970s.
"They're not bio-secure," Rebar says, "which means we can't test things that we think have infectious diseases because we can't contain them."
Rebar says the new lab's research would include better monitoring of tick-borne diseases, which he says impacts health in both human and animals, such as moose.
