![Leech Swab Of Blood Meal](/assets/448862/600x/leech_swab_of_blood_meal.png)
After leech samples are brought back to the lab for processing, they are dissected and the blood meal is collected using a cotton swab.
After testing many methods of processing leeches, this one has proven to provide a higher yield of total nucleic acid for testing of DNA and RNA for pathogen detection.