How new tools are born
During Covid-19 lockdown we started thinking about how bench scientists could help field scientists helping wildlife conservation. Something about collecting their saliva for health tests…
[image by Maristela M. de Camargo, 2021]
We contacted a wildlife health expert from the Global Health Program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute: “… I´ve been in contact with engineers about building a contact-less sampling station [to monitor wildlife health]”
[image by Maristela M. de Camargo, 2021]
This resulted in our first grant to start developing the technology for sampling saliva from wild animals without capturing them.
[image from planetarysolutions.yale.edu]
Revive & Restore funded us to validate our methodology, now named S.W.A.B. (Spontaneous Wildlife Autonomous Biosampler) with shelter cats and mice.
[image from sites.usp.br/swab]
EveryCat Health Foundation funded an extended study of use of S.W.A.B. in shelter cats for monitoring FeLV
[image from sites.usp.br/swab]
FAPESP funded a study using S.W.A.B. to monitor pathogens in free-ranging mammals living at USP campus.
[image from bv.fapesp.br]
CNPq funded a study using S.W.A.B. to monitor zoonotic pathogens in free-ranging coatis (Nasua nasua) at Tijuca park, Rio de Janeiro.
[image from Wikimedia Commons]
How to build a S.W.A.B. and use it is fully available to everyone on https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.11.705368
[image from biorxiv]
S.W.A.B. is presented to the conservation community live on a workshop at the International Conservation Technology Conference, Lima, Peru.
[image from wildlabs.net]
We and our collaborators are based in Brazil, Germany, Peru, USA, and Vietnam, and each day closer to turning the idea of a contact-less sampling station into reality.
[image from maps.google.com]