New Pinal County Lab Tests Mosquitoes For West Nile

The new West Nile virus testing lab inside the walls of Pinal County's Environmental Health Offices is able to produce much faster results in the hunt for WNV across Pinal County. "For the past 2 years the state lab has been overwhelmed with the amount of mosquito samples brought in from all the counties," said Tami Schuler, a technician for the Pinal County's Division of Environmental Health. Schuler, who has been focused on Pinal County's battle with WNV for the past 3 years, says that test results could take up to 2 weeks if the mosquitoes were sent to the state lab in Phoenix. Now, with the testing lab in place locally, results can be achieved in as little as an hour & a half. The quicker turn around time means a faster response time if a positive sample of WNV is found. "Before, we might wait 2 weeks or more to find out if we had any positive results from an area we sampled," Schuler says. "Now, if our lab turns up a positive sample, we can immediately schedule the area to be fogged. This lab helps us fight WNV much more effectively." Due to the tremendous amount of samples coming into their laboratories, the State of Arizona gifted the County with the testing equipment to help alleviate the crush in Phoenix. Pinal joins Maricopa, Pima & Yuma counties as having their own facilities for testing. The new facility has already received a workout as Schuler has tested 4 dead birds and 11 mosquito samples. So far, no signs of WNV have been detected in the County which is a different story from last year. "By this time last year we already were looking at a positive sample for West Nile," Schuler said. "That was because of the wet winter we had. So far this year it has been relatively dry which means there are less mosquitoes out there. But I heard forecasts that predict we are going to have a summer with lots of heat and moisture. If that happens we will be busy."