Veterinary Laboratory

In 1950 UT was one of six Experiment Stations selected by the Federal Bureau of Animal Industry to study the X-disease of cattle. The disease, striking calves and yearlings hardest, caused marked thickening of the skin, ulcers of the mouth and internal organs, and excessive flow of tears. Researchers estimated that the X-disease had cost Tennessee farmers more than half a million dollars and had taken a $5 million toll in the southeast. Barber and McMurry designed a one-story brick and masonry building that included isolated hospital wards for animals under study, pathology and bacteriology laboratories, and a necropsy room. The $51,312 building on the agriculture campus (built by W. A. Catlett Construction Company) was paid for by the Bureau of Animal Husbandry and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. The research program was under the direction of Dr. Dennis Sykes, UT veterinarian.