Research in Raleigh

As a follow up to our collection of milk samples from the dairy down here, myself and Claire went up to Raleigh this afternoon to help process some of the samples in the lab at the vet school. It was a great opportunity for both of us because Claire got to see the campus of the vet school at NC State, which is quite different than what she has in Uruguay. Hopefully this will motivate her to consider doing a year or more abroad once she is finished with her studies.

In the lab we organized the samples collected at the farm and using a sheep's blood medium we smeared the samples in plates and saw some examples of the bacteria cultures that grew out of the process as a result. Keena, the graduate student in charge of the lab and the project explained what further processing took place to isolate the Staph Aureous bacteria, which is one of the main causes of mastitis (an infection of the udder) in dairy cattle. Because of the presence of bacteria in the udder, the cow begins to produce somatic cells, an immune response, which is not good for human consumption. Mastitis is the leading cause in a decline in milk production in a herd. The overall project is looking at the presence of the staph aureous bacteria in the milk as well as the flies around the barn (a different collection process) to see if there is a correlation.

Before I forget (although how could I), I should mention the discussion we had this morning for our community engagement time. We had a local poet come in and read some poetry she wrote about growing up as part of a rural African American family in the South, some pretty powerful stuff. I especially enjoyed a poem where she talked about the repetitive and somewhat mindless process she and her family had to endure daily because there was nothing else. We also had a community organizer come in and facilitate a discussion on how to build active communities that deal with issues such as racial structures in agriculture. We sat in groups and each answered a question about our connection to food. The best part of this, in my opinion, was getting to hear everybody speak very clearly for what may be the first time. The rules of the groups were that nobody could talk except for the person designated to and the other people had to completely listen to the person, which meant not thinking about what they were going to say next. I've never really realized how often I do that and how it may affect my ability to really listen to a person. I always pride myself on being a great listener so I guess it's time for a revamping of my skills :)

Great potluck in the evening as well with tons of amazing food!