To monitor for avian influenza, the technicians take swabs from a bird's trachea and cloaca (the cavity into which the intestinal and genitourinary tracts empty) as well as samples from the market environment, such as the walls and floors, "to be sure that everything is kept clean," says Trock. A product of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service, she is well prepared to conduct field investigations for zoonotic (disease that humans can get from animals) and animal infectious disease agents. Trock, a veterinary extension epidemiologist at Cornell University's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, assigned to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets in Albany. Overseeing the five field technicians who take some 1,000 samples each week from New York state's 90 bird markets, which are mostly in the New York City area, is Susan C. It is a vital part of a program to detect health threats to animals and, potentially, the public. With 25 million chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, geese and other edible birds coming through live poultry markets in the Northeast every year, field technicians are constantly taking random samples to monitor for avian influenza viruses.
0 kommentar(er)
