The amount of waste from expired and unused lab supplies always bothered Pitt researcher Danielle Tufts. But after reading about a sanctuary that rescues animals from abuse, illegal pet trade and wildlife trafficking in Bolivia, she saw an opportunity. Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) provides veterinary care and rehabilitation for rescued animals, and Tufts, assistant professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at the Pitt’s School of Public Health, has access to veterinary supplies the organization could use to help provide that care. That one of CIWY’s facilities was close to where Tufts will be teaching in the Pitt in Bolivia program this summer sealed the deal. She would deliver a donation of expired veterinary and lab supplies to the sanctuary instead of it going to a landfill.
Members of Pitt’s Division of Laboratory Animal Resources (DLAR) periodically visit labs they manage. Because federal and University regulations do not allow the use of expired materials when conducting federally funded research, DLAR staff members are required to dispose of expired medical supplies. Needles, syringes, and sutures, even unused and wrapped in plastic, must be thrown out.
“My heart just went out to the animals at CIWY,” says Tufts. “We have all these supplies that we’re not permitted to use. I think this is a great opportunity for us to reduce our waste and provide help to an organization that desperately needs the supplies.”
Tufts contacted CIWY, and they were happy to receive donations of expired items that were still functional, as the organization’s work to rescue, rehabilitate and care for wildlife requires large quantities of veterinary supplies. Tufts then brought the idea of donating unused equipment to Joseph Newsome, veterinarian and DLAR associate director, who coordinated the retrieval of numerous boxes for Tufts’ donation.
One remaining obstacle is getting the donation to Bolivia. Tufts estimates shipping costs to be at least $3,000 and has created a GoFundMe fundraiser to help defray the costs.
After Tufts finishes teaching the infectious diseases course in the Pitt in Bolivia program, she will move on to the next phase of her collaboration with CIWY—research on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Bolivia. A vector-borne disease ecologist, Tufts wants to determine which tick-borne diseases exist in Bolivia and which may pose a risk to public and animal health.
“I’d like to do a pathobiome study, which looks at all pathogens, viruses, microbes, etc. in the tick samples,” says Tufts. “Then, we can do separate analyses to relate those to known human pathogens to determine which tick-borne diseases are in Bolivia and what the likelihood is of them infecting humans or animals.”