OE Testing

Kallie is hard at work at the MRS testing for OE: Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a single celled parasite that  infects monarchs. We test every monarch in the station. Kallie tests adult monarchs (it's not possible to test caterpillars for the disease); she's looking for microscopic spores on the abdomen of the butterfly. Any monarchs found with OE are destroyed and appropriately disposed of to reduce contamination. [caption id="attachment_5387" align="alignleft" width="225"] Kallie testing for OE.[/caption]