On Monday, scientists at an Iowa City laboratory received 10 specimens suspected of containing the swine flu virus, sent by doctors from across the state.

By Thursday, the same lab received 175 specimens.

“I thought it would be a little slower incline than that,” said Michael Pentella, Ph.D., associate director of infectious disease testing at the University Hygienic Laboratory in Iowa City.

The steep incline in demand for swine flu testing has placed scientists at the lab in considerable demand. The Iowa City lab is the state’s public health and environmental lab and tests for disease outbreaks for all 99 counties in the state.

As of Thursday, scientists had identified two samples, procured by doctors with nasal swabs, as being potentially positive for swine flu. Those two samples were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The CDC conducts additional testing to confirm the presence of the virus. Results take about two days, accounting for travel time.

In addition to doing the preliminary testing on the samples for all of Iowa, workers at the Hygienic Laboratory have been busily filling doctors’ requests for more testing kits. The lab has distributed 1,900 specimen collection tubes since the outbreak of a new strain of swine flu, lab spokeswoman Pat Blake said.

“Many doctors’ offices already have them (testing kits),” she said. “These are additional requests.”

The lab contracts with a courier service, Pentella explained, to move specimens across the state.

“I’m told they’re able to keep up with the demand so far,” he said, adding that scientists at his lab have been pulled off other projects to accommodate the demand for swine flu testing.

“A lot of people are putting in a great number of hours,” he said. “You can’t simply call in replacements. This (testing) is specialized and technically complex.”

Accuracy is of primary importance, of course, which is why the 329 specimens that had arrived at the lab between Monday and Thursday immediately were unpacked and given barcodes. The samples then were prepared for testing before a several-hour process in which the actual mucous specimen was extracted from the nasal swab.

The specimens then were processed for the detection of the virus and, finally, the results were interpreted.

“You don’t think of science as an assembly line, but it can seem that way with this kind of volume,” Pentella said.

When a specimen appears to contain the virus, he said, scientists throughout the lab are interested.

“We’re also always aware there’s a patient on the other end of that,” he said. “Physicians sometimes call us back and say, ‘Do you have that (result), yet?’ They are notified right away — before the specimen is sent on to the CDC.

“We want the physicians to have as much information as necessary to treat that patient.”