Can somebody loan me a benchtop electron scanning microscope. Also a lab full of instruments so I can purify the prospective pathogen. It is all so easy!
Many think ZD is caused by a virus. If so you should go read some papers by Jacobson and others on IBD to see how much effort it would take to characterize a new viral pathogen. It is a non-starter.
Jeff -- asking some lab to screen samples will do nothing since you have no baseline to know whether anything they find is normal. Any screen will likely only look for bacteria (plenty of those around normally) and protozoa/flagellate type organisms. Viruses are a different game due to their much smaller size.
I certainly hope we are not criticizing Stu, or Jerry for that matter, for not being altruistic and taking on the mantel of advancing the science for this potential disease. I would be happy if they would just take good notes on their observations.
Stu -- nice shiny scales on that fifth zonata. Begs the question -- are you going to ship him back int he same box as his litter mates?