The NSRL has
played a substantial roll in the investigation of mammalian-borne
zoonoses over the last twenty years. This
involvement has been in two primary areas, resources and personnel. Resources
include the Genetic Resource Collection (frozen tissue and blood
samples) that serve as material for initial detection and isolation
of diseases and voucher specimens for verification and documentation
of host species. Personnel at the NSRL have offered expertise
in specimen identification, deposition of voucher material, systematics,
phylogenetic reconstruction, procurement of research material,
and in th
e development of genetic profiles. Listed below
are a few of the projects dependent on the NSRL’s resources
and personnel.
For nearly
twenty years, the NSRL has worked with the Texas Department of
Public Health in identifying bat specimens suspected of carrying
the rabies virus.
Rodent tissues
housed in the Genetic Resource Collection played a vital role
in the Center for Disease Control response to the hantavirsus
outbreak in the early 1990’s.