I have an idea for you. My brother studied the transmition and medication of a sheep's parasite, a digestive system parasite. It might be a bit difficult for you to join that particular one since it finished a few years back and it was done overseas (Institut National pour la Recherche Agronomique, France). But I am sure that cattle is also important in the US and that teams of scientists do carry out the same type of studies.
So there is how it went for my brother. They had a few set of sheeps, each fed different type of tentative medicines. He did not have to take care of them, even though I am pretty sure that this is a dirty job you might want to look at. He was in charge of taking the samples from each group.
The first sample is probably not TV friendly since it involved a microscope observation of the stomac and intestine tissues. Discection is a dirty mess, but people might not like it too much, but I know you gonna love the second kind.
They were looking at a parasite who leaves spores in the sheep's poo. So that product you love so much, had special interest for them. They were looking at the total weight, to get the an idea of the sheeps' appetite, and also the composition. And that is where all the fun is. They need a dry sample, and letting it dry on its own is no option, that would turn into compost. And when you want to heat up water, there is no better way than microwave ovens. From there, I guess you can "smell" all the nice missaps with methane build-up and exploding feces... The count of spores with microscopes over a sample of dried smelly crap is not bad either.
Once again, even if this particular study is done, I can bet that someone does the same type of things here in the US.
hopes you enjoyed
jacques
PS: After that, my brother decided to change. He found human medical analysis way less dirty. He now works in a lab in lille (north of france).
