Marie De Fazio, SUNY Orange graduate and West Nile Surveillance team member collects mosquitoes from a gravid trap at an undisclosed location in eastern Orange County. Gravid traps collect pregnant female mosquitoes who are looking to lay eggs.
The Office of Institutional Advancement:
(845) 341-4725
Morrison Hall
Orange County Community College
115 South Street Middletown, NY 10940
publicity@sunyorange.edu
Contact:
Vinnie Cazzetta, VP, Institutional Advancement
Phone: (845) 341-4725 • Fax: (845) 341-4730SUNY Orange West Nile Surveillance Team canvasses county
SUNY Orange offers new degree program in Industrial Laboratory Technology
SUNY Orange moves base of operations in Port Jervis to high school
Marie De Fazio has an eye for iridescent beauty.
"If you look at some of them, you'd be so surprised," she says. "Some of them can be very pretty. One has an iridescent blue that shines at you," she says.
Not everyone shares De Fazio's appreciation, but after three years of intense study, she's developed one. She's talking about mosquitoes: potentially deadly vectors of disease, and DeFazio is on the first line of defense.
De Fazio is a member of Orange County Community College's West Nile Surveillance Team, which for four years now has collected and identified the insects for the county. This study is a part of a county and statewide investigation by the New York State Department of Health. The collected mosquito pools are then sent to the state laboratory to test for the presence of the disease. This information is forwarded to the health officials at Orange County.
The team consists of nine members, both students and graduates of SUNY Orange, who have been hired by the college to collect mosquito specimens at locations throughout the county. The team uses traps to collect adult mosquitoes; they also collect larvae samples at catch basins. The larvae are then reared in the lab to test the efficiency of the methoprene, used countywide to retard the growth of mosquitoes.
Approximately 48 traps are set at various locations throughout the county. These locations are determined by their proximity to populated areas, says biology and laboratory technology chair Dr. Melody Festa. They are placed in population-dense areas, such as residential settings and parks.
Two styles of traps are used. Gravid traps attract only pregnant females who have had a blood meal and are looking to lay eggs. Smaller CDC (Center for Disease Control) light traps are used to attract all kinds of adult mosquitoes. They use light and carbon dioxide, which mimics human breath. Photographs of the mosquito traps can be viewed on the college's web site at www.sunyorange.edu/wn/
The traps are set and collected twice a week. A gravid trap can catch, on average, about twenty mosquitoes at a time. A light trap can collect anywhere between one and one thousand mosquitoes, although the light trap occasionally draws what the team calls "non-targeted insects," or "junk bugs" - like moths and flies that are drawn to the light.
After the insects are brought back to the lab, they're killed in dry ice. "So they don't start waking up on you," jokes De Fazio. They are then identified under a dissecting microscope.
About 25 species of mosquito are common to our area, but only about seven species bite humans and may carry the disease. What gets the team really excited, though, is when they find one that's not on the list.
"That's when we call in all the other biologists to come take a look," says team member and 2002 graduate Carrie Saffo.
Enormous concentration is required for the job, and the attention to detail is intense. "You can't really want to mess up on what you're doing," says De Fazio, "because this is so serious. When you're ID'ing a mosquito, this is the mosquito. You have to watch yourself a lot."
"It's a great learning experience for them," says Dr. Festa. "They get to do field work and research. We can't simulate this kind of work in the lab. It's invaluable experience for them, especially at a two-year college."
Team member Jada Howarth never expected to become so absorbed in her work. "I was at a barbecue last week," she says, "and I swatted a mosquito on my arm. I was like, look! It has banded legs!"
For De Fazio, the work is never boring. "It seems like each trap night, it's always a surprise the next day. You never know what to expect when you go into that lab."
Why mosquitoes? Field director Terry Plummer explains that as the source of the virus, it's a logical place to look for the disease. Some areas use sentinel chickens, he says, which are tested periodically for the virus, but that doesn't work as well in our area.
"If [West Nile virus] is there, we want to find it," he says. "If it is there, people can be more careful about their activities. Hopefully, it serves a purpose."
MIDDLETOWN – Orange County Community College announces a new degree program this fall in Industrial Laboratory Technology. The program, which is similar to the existing Medical Laboratory Technology with the addition of two new courses – Electron Microscopy and Technical Photography – will prepare students for careers in chemical labs, food processing plants, cosmetics labs and computer labs rather than in hospitals.
Graduates of the program will be prepared to do work such as testing food for bacteria in microbiology labs, testing cosmetics for allergens or for purity, or working in computer labs performing quality control of computer chips.
“The speed of a computer chip has to do not only with the materials it’s manufactured from, but how they’re combined together,” says Dr. Frank Traeger, professor of laboratory technology and biology at SUNY Orange. “And we can see that using electron microscopy technologies: looking at how the metals actually associate themselves in the alloy.”
Dr. Traeger, who teaches the electron microscopy course, says students of his have gone on to careers at IBM, Dow Chemical, and even to research positions at Yale and the University of Virginia.
The possibilities for employment are wide, according to Department of Labor statistics, with at least 50 new positions projected in the Hudson Valley and over 2,000 jobs total for physical and life science technicians, as well as for biological, agricultural and food technicians.
“We’re hoping we can reopen these avenues to some of these students,” says Dr. Traeger. “We can share the opportunities that exist, certainly. We’ve had great success in the past.”
PORT JERVIS – Orange County Community College will move its base of operations in Port Jervis from the Hunt Building on 123 Pike Street to the Port Jervis High School on Route 209 in Port Jervis.
“We’re looking forward to partnering with the high school to not only continue offering all the current courses but to expand the offerings both in credit and non-credit courses,” says Dr. David Rule, vice-president for academic affairs at SUNY Orange.
He cites the high schools more modern classrooms, better computing resources and closer access to students who will be able to more easily take classes as all potential benefits to the move.
“We’ll be closer to the people we want to reach,” Rule says.
Plans include expansion in courses in general education like psychology, sociology, math, history and English.
The college currently has a program in the high school: the Community College in the High School program, which allows high school seniors to take college level courses while still in school.
With the move, the college hopes to be even more supportive to the community
by offering even more afternoon and evening courses.
MIDDLETOWN – SUNY Orange will have a representative available at the lower level atrium in front of JC Penney at the Galleria Mall at Crystal Run in Middletown on Sunday, July 13, 2003 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to give shoppers a chance to learn more about the college.
You can pick up printed materials about the college and ask questions from
an admissions professional while you’re there, or you can call (845)
341-4030 for more information about scheduling an appointment any other time.
Orange County Community College is offering the five-hour course mandated by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles for all New York State permit holders (4 hours of instruction with a multiple choice test at the end of the course). The course addresses seat belt use, drug and alcohol use, among other topics. The course will result in the issuance of the MV-278 form needed for the road test appointment. Registration must be completed prior to the beginning date of class.
The class costs $25 classes are available on Saturday, July 19th and on Saturday, July 28th. Class runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will be held in Harriman Hall, Room 201.
Orange County Community College is offering several Defensive Driving classes this summer which can improve the odds for preventing accidents and earn a 10% liability and collision insurance discount following completion. You can even remove up to four points from your driving record. Registration must be completed prior to the beginning date of class.
The class costs $40 and the next available class is on Monday and Tuesday
evenings, July 28th and 29th. Class runs from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and will
be held in Harriman Hall, Room 105.