(WARNING: There are some graphic pictures in this post that may offend or nauseate some of you. On the scale of pictures that I could have posted, they aren't so bad, but I still feel like I should give a warning.)
I can proudly say that I have survived two weeks of working in an Egyptian slaughterhouse (first mentioned in this post). The study that we're doing in the slaughterhouses in Egypt is designed as a risk assessment, to see what diseases are being carried by the animals and insects in the slaughterhouses and determine whether the employees who work in the slaughterhouses may be at risk for catching some of these diseases. (For those of you in the medical field, we're specifically interested in Rift Valley Fever, West Nile virus, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, Q-fever, Brucella spp., Leptospira spp. and two sandfly fevers.)
We decided to collect three different types of samples to analyze in our laboratories for these diseases: (1) blood samples from slaughtered animals, (2) ectoparasite collection (ticks, lice, biting flies, etc.) from slaughtered animals, and (3) insect collection (mosquitoes, flies, etc.) using light traps and sticky traps. I recruited a team from NAMRU-3 (mostly made up of vector biologists, laboratory staff and summer interns) to help with sample collection, and we spent four long days at the slaughterhouse. Slaughtering begins at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. every day, so we had to be at the site by 4:00 a.m. and we worked most days until 9:30 a.m. I suppose that's not too many hours, but it's a lot of time to spend in a dark, smelly, bloody, hectic Egyptian slaughterhouse.
As I mentioned, the first component of the sample collection was to take blood samples from slaughtered animals. In four days we collected blood specimens from over 500 animals, including cattle, buffalo, sheep and camels. To avoid any stigma or controversy, we decided to collect blood samples after the animals were killed rather than before, lest one of the butchers think we were using needles to inject the animals with something. By collecting the blood after slaughter, we were able to avoid using needles at all.In Egypt, as throughout the Middle East, animals are slaughtered according to halal methods to meet religious requirements that forbid such things as the consumption of blood or of meat from an animal that has been strangled, beaten or gored. Animals are therefore killed by having their throats slit with a sharp knife (in all reality, their throats are cut all the way through to the spine so the animals are practically beheaded). Since the animals bleed for qutie some time after they are killed, it was rather easy for us to step in and collect blood directly from the jugular vein while the animal was laying on the ground after slaughter.
The second component of the study involved a group of vector biologists from our team. After we collected blood from each animal, the vector biologists checked the animal's body for ecoparasites like ticks, lice and biting flies. This was truly a messy job, to comb over each slaughtered animal's body searching for tiny little bugs and then removing each critter with a pair of tweezers and placing it in a tube. I was really impressed at how many ectoparasites they actually found.
The third component of the project also involved collecting vectors, though in a less messy way. By examining the animals, we were able to collect insects that attach themselves to animals for a longer time period, but we were also interested in the insects that attach themselves for just a short period of time - insects like mosquitoes and flies. The vector biologists used two types of traps to collect these vectors. The first type of traps are called CDC light traps. The second type of traps are sticky traps, which look like a piece of cardboard covered in a stucky substance, attached to a stick and stuck in the ground. Both types of traps were set all around the slaughterhouse grounds.
Vector biologists setting sticky traps
Clearly sample collection for this project wasn't a clean job, nor an easy one. It wasn't a pleasant thing to do; it didn't happen in a pleasant location; it didn't happen at a pleasant time of day (those of you who know me well can only imagine how excited I was to set my alarm clock for 2:30 a.m. every morning that we had to go out to the slaughterhouse); it didn't smell pleasant; in fact, there was nothing pleasant about it, except for one thing, and thankfully, that was one huge thing. My study team for this project was absolutely incredible. They were so great to work with, and I mean that in the very, very best way possible. Each person was meticulous and diligent with the work, followed direction without question and, somehow, in this environment, maintained a positive attitude, made jokes, smiled and laughed throughout the days. It was truly a pleasure to work with each and everyone of them and somehow it almost makes me look forward to the next time we have to go out and do this!
NAMRU-3 study team
