JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For more than 80 years, the Navy Entomology Center of Excellence (NECE), located right here in Jacksonville, has been a force when diseases or outbreaks are identified.
Through microscopes, jars, and sweep nets – the center serves the entire U.S. Department of Defense, which includes the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Space Force.
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The goal is to protect deployed forces from vectors of disease.
Lt. Edward Traczyk is NECE’s Assistant Head of Research and Development. He showed Action News Jax a device sent out into the field where a sample of a tick or mosquito can be collected, crushed up and placed inside.
Then, the person could identify if disease pathogens are present.
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“They’re able to inform leaders, so they’re able to make choices on the spot,” Traczyk said.
When a sample is sent in, it’s placed underneath a microscope and identified. Then it’s stored as a sample – or tested to verify the disease.
Jennifer Remmers is the Department Head of Readiness and Training. She said there are three types of collections: Systematic Reference Collection, Public Affairs Collection and a Training Collection
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“Our collections are so we have examples of species types for identification purposes,” Remmers said.
Many courses are offered, and the specimens are used for students to work from.
Personnel work across the globe. Entomologists from the center are currently in East Africa.
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From Alphavirus – to Zika – to diseases unheard of by most– the goal is to keep those serving our country safe from even what appears to be the smallest threat.
“You’re never going to get the same picture. It’s always going to be unique. The measurements are always going to be different. We can use the data here to validate what we’re doing in the field,” said LTJG Sierra Schluep, the Department Head of Testing and Evaluation.
Ian Sutherland is NECE’s Officer in Charge and shared that leaders want the center to work as a pipeline where new entomologists come and then push out into the fleet.
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“The bottom line is to protect the warfighter personnel who get deployed sometimes in the most inhospitable places ecologically that you could be in,” Sutherland said.
The center’s origin dates back to 1941 during World War II with its first commissioned Navy entomologist.
NECE is the largest concentration of entomologists within the U.S. Department of Defense.
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