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It was another great day at the APHL Annual Meeting! From cholera to opioids to storytelling, the day was packed full of fascinating presentations from experts. Follow #APHL on Twitter and Instagram to join the conversation!
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Posted by in All Posts, Annual Meeting, APHL, Rhode Island
We had an exciting first day of the 2017 APHL Annual Meeting in Providence! The meeting kicked-off with a warm welcome from Dr. Ewa King, director of the Rhode Island State Health Laboratories, and Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health. For more updates from the meeting, follow #APHL on Twitter and Instagram.
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Posted by in All Posts, Annual Meeting, conference, General, Rhode Island
by Kim Krisberg
Every week, the Rhode Island State Health Laboratory tests water from Narragansett Bay, monitoring the estuary for harmful toxin producing plankton that can contaminate the seafood that makes it to market. The testing protects both consumers and the fishermen who depend on a healthy bay for their livelihoods.
Last October, that routine testing revealed large numbers of the algae Pseudo-nitzschia — numbers much higher than what’s considered normal. Pseudo-nitzschia can produce a neurotoxin known as domoic acid. In people, domoic acid can lead to amnesic shellfish poisoning, which can result in permanent short-term memory loss and even death. So with the sudden algal bloom detected, laboratory staff quickly began toxicity testing. Tests came back positive.
The results meant the public health laboratory had just detected Rhode Island’s first Pseudo-nitzschia bloom and triggered a statewide contingency plan designed to keep contaminated shellfish from reaching people’s plates.
“Our goal is to protect public health, but this could also affect the shellfishing economy and the harvesters here — the whole reputation of Rhode Island shellfish could go down the drain if people did get sick,” said Henry Leibovitz, PhD, chief environmental laboratory scientist at the Rhode Island Department of Health State Health Laboratories.
Contingency plan activated, laboratory staff began testing shellfish meat collected from areas with high algae counts. The meat tested positive for domoic acid levels beyond safe thresholds set by the US Food and Drug Administration. In response, on October 7, Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM) officially closed down shellfish collection in parts of the bay. Leibovitz said it was the first time this particular type of algal bloom brought shellfish harvesting to a halt in the area.
As harvesting on the bay stopped, laboratory staff ramped up their testing of water and meat samples collected by the DEM as well as of quarantined shellfish already on the market.
“We wanted to prevent contaminated shellfish from getting to people and reopen the bay as soon as it was safe,” Leibovitz said.
Thankfully, none of the quarantined shellfish tested positive for contamination and within a few weeks, algae counts began dropping. A few weeks after the bloom began, Leibovitz said the number and density of plankton declined to a point where the shellfish had a chance to cleanse themselves of the toxin. Laboratory staff began seeing results well below safety thresholds so that Rhode Island shellfish were safe for consumption. By the beginning of November, DEM reopened the bay to shellfish harvesting.
Then in February, the laboratory detected another Pseudo-nitzschia bloom and high toxin levels — this time, in a part of the bay closest to the ocean. (On a side note, Leibovitz said some experts speculate that the initial bloom never really died out entirely off shore, and the bloom returned to the mouth of bay where it meets the ocean.) Based on the results, DEM shut down shellfish harvesting again on March 1, eventually reopening on March 24.
Throughout the two closures, no cases of human illness related to contaminated shellfish were reported.
During the blooms, laboratory scientists conducted hundreds of complicated tests in the span of a single month — “everyone had to stay late and get it done because we needed the answers right away,” Leibovitz said. He noted that even though the laboratory is prepared for such a surge, it’s still “very challenging” to keep up for weeks at a time.
That’s because within the laboratory’s water microbiology unit, none of the four scientists do shellfish testing on a full-time basis. They’re also responsible for testing drinking water, beach water, dairy samples, river water and animals for rabies. But when the algal bloom appeared, the entire water microbiology laboratory turned its attention to keeping toxic shellfish off people’s plates and re-opening the bay as quickly and safely as possible. At one point, scientists from a different division within the state laboratory were called over to help.
“It’s very time-consuming and our other responsibilities don’t stop,” Leibovitz noted. “We’ve always had a contingency plan in place, but the laboratory isn’t staffed to do this (level of testing) on a routine basis and last fall, it became routine.”
So, what caused the algal bloom? Leibovitz said, “no one really knows yet.” But one theory is that successful efforts to keep stormwater runoff out of Narragansett Bay has reduced nutrients in the bay to the point that Pseudo-nitzschia may not have the competition from other algal species that flourished for years in the nutrient-rich environment. The cleaner waters of the bay may now be more supportive of Pseudo-nitzschia growth as are the waters outside of the bay, where they typically thrive.
“The worry is that this could be the new normal,” Leibovitz said. “But the group that works in the water microbiology laboratory are really dedicated to ensuring Rhode Island shellfish in the market are good and safe to eat…when something like this happens, they step up.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s unknown how many people in the US are sickened due to harmful algae blooms, as such occurrences aren’t tracked nationally. However, state and local public health agencies can now report such illnesses to the One Health Harmful Algae Bloom System, which launched last year. CDC did report that economic costs associated with such blooms have gone up in recent decades, costing the fishing and tourism industries millions of dollars each year.
Photo of Narraganset Bay via WPRI
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Posted by in algae, algal blooms, All Posts, Environmental Health, Rhode Island, water testing
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By Henry Leibovitz, Ph.D., Chief, Environmental Sciences, RI State Health Laboratories
Growing up along the south shore of Long Island’s eastern end, my interests covered everything aquatic. My every waking hour was spent on the water fishing, boating, clam digging, and exploring. My every dream was driven by the excitement of the sea. It was an exceptional lifestyle for an adolescent who cared more about adventure than academics. Nonetheless, my future was destined to involve higher education and research by the vision of my father who was a veterinarian, a research scientist and veterinary college professor.
While earning my BS in Biology, a close priority became serving as president of the outing club, an adventure wilderness group of students spending weekends in the Adirondack Mountains. Opportunity also came to me in campus residence life as I worked as a resident advisor and then assistant dormitory director. The training and experiences included interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, supervision and management as well as life lessons that would play a major role later in my laboratory career. Upon graduation, my passion had become feeding the world through aquaculture.
After marrying my college sweetheart I enrolled in an MS degree program of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture at Auburn University. Waking up before dawn to measure dissolved oxygen levels in the catfish ponds and constantly worrying about the threat of O2 depletion, and losing thousands of pounds of fish was not going to be my way of life. The laboratory environment became much more interesting. My major professor introduced me to the nutritional biochemistry of fish diets and feeds. Replacing fish meal with soybean meal in catfish diets was the subject of my research and thesis. “We are what we eat!” With fish I learned that feed analysis is critical to understanding how diet affected the growth, health and production of farmed fish. I earned my MS realizing that laboratory scientists have a significant role in feeding the world just as the farmers do.
I landed a research associate position on a project at Louisiana State University funded by a NIH grant to develop laboratory grade bullfrogs (Rana catesbiana) in place of the wild caught overly-stressed specimens for neurophysiologic research. My role was to improve the diets for larval stages of tadpoles! In the laboratory we bred and raised several bullfrog line generations. During metamorphosis however tadpoles frequently developed skeletal deformities including scoliosis. My research focused on dietary and environmental factors that were causally suspected. While the research was very interesting, I became convinced that it would be more rewarding to lead the research activities and that earning a Ph.D. was necessary to continue my career.
During my Ph.D. program at the University of Rhode Island I worked as a research associate for the Department of Food Science and Nutrition. My duties as instrumentation specialist involved me in a variety of the department’s research activities. While pursuing my doctoral dissertation developing microencapsulated diets for larval marine fish, I learned the importance of elucidating environmental components such as pesticides, PCBs and metals in natural (plankton and brine shrimp) and formulated diets (various fish meals, fish oils, grains and other ingredients) for growth and survival during fragile larval stages.
Learning to apply the tools of analytical chemistry to the analysis of environmental components in feed and living organisms, I forged my career path into environmental laboratory analysis. After earning a Ph.D., I worked for an environmental analysis laboratory starting as supervisor and eventually as laboratory director before the company moved to South America. We provided laboratory services to national clients including the US Department of Defense, EPA and many environmental engineering contractors. We analyzed sample matrices included air, water, soil, biota and food. Professionally I was so rewarded by the teaching, research and managerial aspects of my job that I didn’t expect to find in the commercial sector. Teaching newly hired graduates, improving methodology and instrument performance, and sharing a vision of the critical paths to achieving objectives kept me interested in the work. Client centric laboratory services were important to me.
In 2004 I was hired by the RI State Health Laboratories (SHL) as Quality Assurance Officer in the Environmental Laboratory Sciences section. In 2007 I became Chief Environmental Laboratory Scientist of the section that includes the chemical and microbiological analysis of drinking water, food, air, dairy, shell fish, recreational water and ambient river samples for the health and environmental program partners we serve. I point to the dedication of staff, peers and colleagues for the successful SHL services provided to our state health and environmental program and industrial partners.
As a public servant I have come to understand that the existence of our laboratories depends on the successful outcomes of our partners in public health and environmental protection.
Outside of work I enjoy spending time with my family and I still pursue the adventure of the great outdoors all seasons of the year.