{"id":511,"date":"2026-05-10T23:10:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/?page_id=511"},"modified":"2026-05-10T23:54:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:54:51","slug":"our-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/our-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Our story"},"content":{"rendered":"

How new tools are born<\/span><\/h1>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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2021<\/span><\/div><\/div>
2021<\/div><\/div>
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<\/div>
January 2021<\/a><\/div>
\"January<\/a><\/div>

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\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

[image by Maristela M. de Camargo, 2021]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2021<\/div><\/div>
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<\/div>
June 2021<\/a><\/div>
\"June<\/a><\/div>

We contacted a wildlife health expert from the Global Health Program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute: <\/span>\u201c… I\u00b4ve been in contact with engineers about building a contact-less sampling station [to monitor wildlife health]\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

[image by Maristela M. de Camargo, 2021]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2022<\/span><\/div><\/div>
2022<\/div><\/div>
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<\/div>
March 2022<\/a><\/div>
\"March<\/a><\/div>

This resulted in our first grant<\/a> to start developing the technology for sampling saliva from wild animals without capturing them.<\/span><\/p>\n

[image from planetarysolutions.yale.edu]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2023<\/span><\/div><\/div>
2023<\/div><\/div>
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<\/div>
December 2023<\/a><\/div>
\"December<\/a><\/div>

Revive & Restore funded us<\/a> to validate our methodology, now named S.W.A.B. (Spontaneous Wildlife Autonomous Biosampler) with shelter cats and mice.<\/span><\/p>\n

[image from sites.usp.br\/swab]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2023<\/div><\/div>
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December 2023<\/a><\/div>
\"December<\/a><\/div>

EveryCat Health Foundation funded<\/a> an extended study of use of S.W.A.B. in shelter cats for monitoring FeLV<\/span><\/p>\n

[image from sites.usp.br\/swab]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2024<\/span><\/div><\/div>
2024<\/div><\/div>
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June 2024<\/a><\/div>
\"June<\/a><\/div>

Wild Animal Initiative funded us<\/a> to explore whether S.W.A.B. can be used to monitor welfare markers in wild animals.<\/span><\/p>\n

[image from sites.usp.br\/swab]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2025<\/span><\/div><\/div>
2025<\/div><\/div>
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<\/div>
October 2025<\/a><\/div>
\"October<\/a><\/div>

FAPESP funded<\/a> a study using S.W.A.B. to monitor pathogens in free-ranging mammals living at USP campus.<\/p>\n

[image from bv.fapesp.br]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2025<\/div><\/div>
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November 2025<\/a><\/div>
\"November<\/a><\/div>

CNPq funded a study using S.W.A.B. to monitor zoonotic pathogens in free-ranging coatis (Nasua nasua<\/em>) at Tijuca park, Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

[image from Wikimedia Commons]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2026<\/span><\/div><\/div>
2026<\/div><\/div>
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February 2026<\/a><\/div>
\"February<\/a><\/div>

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<\/a><\/p>\n

[image from biorxiv]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2026<\/div><\/div>
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February 2026<\/a><\/div>
\"February<\/a><\/div>

S.W.A.B. is presented to the conservation community live on a workshop at the International Conservation Technology Conference<\/a>, Lima, Peru.<\/p>\n

[image from wildlabs.net]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

2026<\/div><\/div>
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May 2026<\/a><\/div>
\"May<\/a><\/div>

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

[image from maps.google.com]<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t

<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How new tools are born<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24364,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-511","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/511\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usp.br\/swab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}