Caption: At the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison, observers stand near the 4000 pound-capacity stainless steel tank that is at the heart of a state-of-the-art mobile tissue digester. The $900,000 digester, purchased with the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), uses heat, pressure and caustic chemicals, sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, circulated through the 8-foot diameter tank to reduce animal and microbial tissues to a sterile slurry that can be safely disposed of in a sanitary sewer. The digester, which works like an enormous, insatiable stomach, is intended primarily to help the lab dispose of as many as 14,000 samples of deer tissue to be tested in the coming months by the lab for the presence of chronic wasting disease (CWD).
Photo by: Jeff Miller
Date: December 2003
High-resolution 300 DPI JPEG

Caption: At the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison, chemist Steve Rutta guides a crane-hoisted cow carcass into a massive stainless steel tank, and readies it for reduction and disposal in a state-of-the-art mobile tissue digester.
Photo by: Jeff Miller
Date: December 2003
High-resolution 300 DPI JPEG

Caption: At the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison, bagged deer heads are placed in a massive stainless steel tank, and readied for reduction and disposal in a state-of-the-art mobile tissue digester.
Photo by: Jeff Miller
Date: December 2003
High-resolution 300 DPI JPEG

Caption: Robert Shull, clinical professor of patholgy, and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.
Photo by: Jeff Miller
Date: December 2003
High-resolution 300 DPI JPEG