As the need for coronavirus testing grows, Oregon State University's College of Veterinary Medicine has answered the call.
9 news.
With labs overwhelmed by the number of coronavirus tests in need of confirmation-- the veterinary diagnostics lab at oregon state university has stepped up to help -- using machines typically only suited for animal testing - to test for the disease in humans.
As kezi 9 news reporter emma jerome shows us - they aren't acting alone, but have partnered together with a local lab that believe their model could be a huge leg up in the fight against the virus mark ackermann is the director for the veterinary diagnostic lab at oregon state university -- for years they have tested for viral infections in animals in the wake of this virus -- much of their facilities are running with a skeleton staff -- but he knew they could do more to help "we've been approached by physicians and physicians groups to assist with covid-19 testing" they have the machinery and the staff to test human samples gotten from nasal swabs typically used for coronavirus testing, but ran into one major speedbump "we are not accredited or certified on the human side" enter willamette valley toxicology - a private lab in corvallis emma jerome: " willamette valley toxicology and osu are running what seems to be a perfect partnership up here in corvallis, but with the technology they're innovating they say they don't just want to leave it in their lab -- they want to share the wealth" "if we can get the model in place i want it to reproduce to other places" manny cruz is the ceo of wvt and he says when the system gets up and running - he hopes he can bring back some of his staff.
He was forced to furlough all but one in march.
Manny cruz: " we basically joined forces through the county health department to where we could use our accreditations here - bring their instrumentation into our laboratory to actually run and process the testing" sending the results back to places like county health departments and physicians the team has the capacity to run 500 tests a day -- once they iron out some kinks, they anticipate that number could enter the thousands -- reporting in corvallis emma jerome kezi 9 news
The college said they were able to make enough of this fluid for 1,000 tests.