A laboratory that provides Salmonella testing services to the poultry industry is to close in December due to staff shortages.
In a letter to customers, Richard Shepherd, operations director at Sci-Tech, said it would close its Craven Arms laboratory on 15 December. “Over the last 12 months, we have struggled to recruit and retain qualified analysts and technicians,” he wrote. “This has affected our ability not only to provide a consistently available analysis service for poultry Salmonella and microbiology, but also to remain profitable despite increasing our prices.
“For these reasons, we have made the difficult but unavoidable decision to close the Craven Arms laboratory and
cease all poultry Salmonella analysis from 15th December 2024. This decision only applies to salmonella and
microbiology testing undertaken at Craven Arms; no other services from Sci-Tech Dungannon or our sister
laboratories within Cawood are affected.”