Biosecurity careers profile: Putting science qualifications to work
Ushma Desai enjoys the variety of
diagnostic work at the Wallaceville Animal
Health Laboratory.
If a new organism or animal disease was to be detected and diagnosed in this country, the staff at Biosecurity New Zealand's (BNZ's) Wallaceville Animal Health Laboratory near Upper Hutt would be among the first to know. The laboratory is part of BNZ's network of Investigation and Diagnostic Centres, and will form an integral part of the National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Disease to be established on the Wallaceville campus.
Providing diagnostic processing and services, the laboratory is responsible for the surveillance of the health of the country's animal population. Routine surveillance and testing provide constant monitoring of New Zealand's animal health status, an essential function for the protection of our continued access to international export markets.
The minimum qualifications required to work in the laboratories are either a veterinary degree (preferably with a relevant post-graduate qualification), a tertiary degree (preferably with relevant post-graduate qualifications or technical experience), or an appropriate tertiary qualification or equivalent experience.
Hannah Barton has been working as a virology technician at Wallaceville for eight months. She majored in zoology at the University of Canterbury and says she's enjoying using the skills she gained during her degree course.
"I've been doing quite a bit of molecular work, PCRs [polymerase chain reaction – used for DNA analysis] and that type of thing," she says. "It's great to be able to use the techniques I'm familiar with."
After her degree, Hannah went to Japan to teach English before moving to the United Kingdom and working as a science technician at a school in Surrey. She says she always thought biosecurity would be a good field to be involved in.
"Biosecurity New Zealand always seemed an interesting place to work because it's a dynamic environment with lots of things happening. Obviously it's frustrating when things don't work, but most of the time it's really satisfying to get results."
Hannah Barton says biosecurity is a dynamic
environment to work in.
Ushma Desai hadn't considered a career in biosecurity. She graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Health Science, majoring in environmental science and microbiology. Her first-ever interview was for a role as a virology technician at BNZ.
"It wasn't until I was actually at the interview that I became really interested in the role. I realised the work BNZ does is so important for New Zealand, and my specific role is really diverse."
She says the best thing about her job is the variety because the team works in modules and rotates every six months.
"I've been here for a year and a half and I haven't been bored yet," she says. "Because we rotate modules we become confident in the specific assays then move on and learn new things in the next module."
Ushma is particularly interested in the avian module, and with the world-wide focus on avian influenza, enjoys working on surveillance for the H5N1 virus.
"I really enjoy doing egg work and going on field trips. We went to Rotorua to collect swabs and blood samples. It's really interesting to take the samples then do the tests and complete the whole process yourself – it's like working behind the scenes."
Return to:
Page last updated: 2 July 2010