It's also more complicated. The technology is much more labor intensive. Additionally, Sneed estimated he spends 80 percent of his time doing quality control to avoid skewed test results. Even the tiniest particle could contaminate another test. We run a lot of controls.
Every fifth tube is a negative control test.
There are some universities and U.S. Department of Agriculture labs conducting similar work, he said. However, the Texas lab offers a broader spectrum of tests, he said.