Spring Break
Udall: infectious disease annex crucial
Madeline Novey
Issue date: 5/4/09 Section: News
While they were not killers, their family members very well could be. And yet there they were, buzzing, flying and resting in a cage with thin metal netting partially covered by a stained white lab coat on the long, mock-wood conference table.
They were Aedes Aegypti Rex-D White Eaye mosquitoes and members of "Colony B," as deemed by CSU infectious disease researchers. These little vectors, as they were called, are the species responsible for spreading Dengue and Yellow Fevers, killing millions of people worldwide.
And these potential killers were a part of the show as one U.S. senator toured CSU's Infectious Disease Annex Saturday afternoon.
Following the recent global outbreak of swine flu, Sen. Mark Udall toured the infectious disease research complex, labeling the facility a necessary investment to combat Mother Nature and the diseases she inflicts upon humanity annually.
In line with that sentiment, researchers and resident experts on the thousands of microbes behind the diseases said the state-of-the-art facility, tucked away up on CSU's Foothills Campus, will serve as a great resource for government agencies if current swine flu conditions escalate to a pandemic level in Fort Collins.
"A facility like this could be a resource for the Colorado and federal agencies that come in to handle thesituation," said Bill Farland, CSU senior vice president for Research and Engagement, in the 38,000 square-foot Rocky Mountain Biocontainment Laboratory. As Udall squared himself in front of the cage after the lab coat is removed to reveal a swarm of mosquitoes and about 10,000 eggs within, Barry Beaty, a distinguished professor and self-proclaimed mosquito enthusiast, said, "We have more mosquitoes in the next building than the Everglades."
"This is how we study them, learn how to kill them," he said of the center provided $36.4 million in annual funding for the next five years by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
They were Aedes Aegypti Rex-D White Eaye mosquitoes and members of "Colony B," as deemed by CSU infectious disease researchers. These little vectors, as they were called, are the species responsible for spreading Dengue and Yellow Fevers, killing millions of people worldwide.
And these potential killers were a part of the show as one U.S. senator toured CSU's Infectious Disease Annex Saturday afternoon.
Following the recent global outbreak of swine flu, Sen. Mark Udall toured the infectious disease research complex, labeling the facility a necessary investment to combat Mother Nature and the diseases she inflicts upon humanity annually.
In line with that sentiment, researchers and resident experts on the thousands of microbes behind the diseases said the state-of-the-art facility, tucked away up on CSU's Foothills Campus, will serve as a great resource for government agencies if current swine flu conditions escalate to a pandemic level in Fort Collins.
"A facility like this could be a resource for the Colorado and federal agencies that come in to handle thesituation," said Bill Farland, CSU senior vice president for Research and Engagement, in the 38,000 square-foot Rocky Mountain Biocontainment Laboratory. As Udall squared himself in front of the cage after the lab coat is removed to reveal a swarm of mosquitoes and about 10,000 eggs within, Barry Beaty, a distinguished professor and self-proclaimed mosquito enthusiast, said, "We have more mosquitoes in the next building than the Everglades."
"This is how we study them, learn how to kill them," he said of the center provided $36.4 million in annual funding for the next five years by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Be the first to comment on this story