What is the Buzz about PCRs?

The Maricopa County Environmental Services Department is excited to present an innovative vector surveillance program tying vector controls over 17,000 routine and special trapping mosquito samples with the latest in mosquito borne disease detection. Maricopa County has had a treatment protocol for West Nile caring mosquitoes since 2004. Previous to 2011 the Department would use Biomedical Corp.’s RAMP testing to determine if local thresholds were met indicating the need for treatment. In 2010, 190 RAMP positive samples were sent into the state lab for PCR testing, 172 of those samples were false positives resulting in an additional 73,000 acres being treated. Due to extensive turnaround times and state budget cutbacks, in 2011 the department saw an opportunity to obtain its own PCR machinery to test the needed mosquito samples for the presence of West Nile and other vector-borne diseases. Additionally, the need for the latest equipment to analyze vector borne diseases in a accurate and timely fashion were highlighted by the finding on a new West Nile variant in 2010.