Benton County MCD currently tests for West Nile Virus (WNV), St. Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV), and Western Equine Enephalitis Virus (WEEV) within the District boundaries. Mosquito samples, whenever possible, are tested in house.  But, the District can send off samples for either initial testing or confirmation testing if that action is warranted. 

Our In-house testing uses qPCR  and provides quick results on field collected mosquito samples and serves as an 'early warning system' in our effort to detect WNv before it infects people, pets and/or livestock.  PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction.  This is a real-time amplification of targeted DNA and the "q" stands for quantitative.  If you would like to know more about PCR and the methods utilized, ClevaLab has a great YouTube video covering this subject:  What is PCR and qPCR?