I got a present from the postage fairy this morning; 40 sterile swabs from a PhD student of Wildlife Epidemiology at the Institute of Zoology in London, who's conducting research into chytrid in the pet trade. I negotiated a deal in which I get to swab my animals and have them tested for chytrid at no charge (usual 'retail' price is about £24 per test, and the tests each cost the lab £5-10 to perform) as long as I send her any (up to a maximum of 20, and no more than 2 from each enclosure) that test positive so that she can attempt to isolate and culture new strains of the fungus for study (and I might even get the animals back when she's done with them). I have a lot of species that she's never tested before, and I've also asked her if she'd like me to freeze any dead ones I find and send them to her.