Station Archive

A noninvasive technique involving strawberry jam and a piece of rope is helping surveillance for diseases that might jump from monkeys to humans according to a study from the University of California, Davis. Christine Johnson and Tierra Smiley Evans of the UC Davis One Health Institute discuss the method on this week's show. 

The OHI’s PREDICT Project has been performing global disease surveillance for more than five years, but the logistics of screening primates for zoonotic pathogens — diseases that can be passed from animals to humans — have often presented a challenge. That is because invasive sampling techniques, such as collecting blood or using oral swabs, require anesthesia in the field.

The One Health Institute is part of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.