WEBVTT

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>> Well, every day we receive a shipment from Fed Ex and that includes all,

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what are called the "urgents",

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or the specimens that are intercepted at the ports of entry around the country.

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And our laboratory may get 40 or 50 of these urgents every day.

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So our lab then splits them up to the specialists.

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I get all the longhorn beetles and we pretty much have to drop what we're doing.

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Once they're received, we'll open the packages.

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We'll identify them.

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In many cases at this point I'm familiar with a lot of the species.

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They could be from all over the world:
Africa, Asia, Mexico.

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They could even be domestic species
that are intercepted at the ports.

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But luckily it only takes me on average
10 or 15 minutes to do the species identification.

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We have a system, a database,
that we will do this identification and enter it online.

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So once I make my identification,
I will open a database online and enter the data,

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the species identification and this will get transmitted immediately

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to the plant protection quarantine unit of USDA,

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which then will transmit my identification to the ports of origin,

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as well as make decisions on what action,
if anything, to take with the cargo.