Please be advised that on December 3, 2025, there will be a planned power outage all day at the SHL Lakeside Lab. Due to this planned power outage, it is advised that you reach out to Dennis Heimdal at dennis-heimdal@uiowa.edu or (712) 337-3669, ext. 6, to coordinate shipping or dropping off any samples that could be affected by this power outage. Telephone and internet services will also be disrupted during this planned power outage, which will cause communication delays.

Due to planned maintenance, portions of the SHL website will be periodically unavailable on November 25, 2025, from 10:00pm - 11:59pm.

SHL will operate with adjusted hours in observation of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The State Hygienic Laboratory has updated the process for both the Testing for Legionella in Cooling Towers and Legionella Clinical Specimens Testing. For more details see the following attachments.

The State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa (SHL) is introducing changes to the Lysosomal Storage Disorder test on the newborn screening panel on August 1st.

Effective July 1, 2025, to comply with the CLIA requirements for maintaining clinical specimen temperature during transport and upon receipt, SHL will verify that specimens are arriving to the laboratory at the temperature requirements stated.

Effective April 9, 2025, Test Iowa will no longer distribute COVID-19 test kits. SHL will continue to process any previously distributed kits until Friday, April 18, 2025.

Posted on Jan 30, 2025. Effective February 10, 2025 the State Hygienic Laboratory will increase the fee for non-human exposure rabies testing to $50 per specimen.

Posted on January 23, 2025. The State Hygienic Laboratory will employ two new tests for H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae stereotyping in an effort to clarify final reports. These changes will be effective 3/1/2025. There is no change to testing being performed. For more details see the full announcement.

On January 16, 2025 Brucella species (abortus, melitensis, and suis) will be removed from the Federal Select Agent and Toxins list. Please see the attached announcement for change details.

Posted on December 12, 2024. SHL has released an updated version of the Bacteriology Test Request Form to the SHL website. Please see the attached announcement for change details and destroy any copies of previous version(s) you may have.

The Newborn Screening section of the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa (SHL) is upgrading to a new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), OpenELIS, beginning October 1, 2024.