> The Science Lab Where Technicians Are Drowning in Feces

CLIFTON, N.J.—On a laboratory table that normally sits empty, hundreds of feces samples are arranged in stacks six vials high.

They’ve traveled by ground and plane, across seven different eastern U.S. states, for one purpose: to be tested for parasites, including cyclospora. And they’re coming faster than scientists here can test them.

So much for summer Fridays at Quest Diagnostics.

Quest typically performs between 30 and 40 cyclospora tests a day across its 10 labs equipped to do them. Now they’re processing more than 1,500. Scientists and technicians are working overtime to manage the brown onslaught.

The painstaking nature of this type of cyclospora test, compounded by the overwhelming volume of samples, underscores why the outbreak has been so hard to get a handle on.

Each sample must be handled one at a time. A portion of the raw stool is transferred into a centrifuge, where it’s spun to concentrate the parasites and make them easier for scientists to spot under a microscope. Technicians then pour off the top layer and place a drop of the concentrated sediment onto a glass slide before smearing it evenly.

“It’s like a needle in a haystack,” says Rodney Rohde, a clinical microbiologist and professor at Texas State University. “You’re going to get eye strain.”

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