SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — Kayla Lester didn't care which came first — the chicken or the egg. She used a pipette to fill vials and test for salmonella in a bird's blood sample. Twenty-four strains can strike poultry, said Gordon Whitbeck, a microbiologist.

Whitbeck Laboratories is just one link in the long chain of the food processing industry. Serving mostly the poultry industry, the lab employees test for everything from disease to the quality of feed, the chicken and the egg, and the products on grocery store shelves.

The business' owner, Whitbeck, credits much of his success to the lab's loc...