Samples collected from Otago Peninsula last week are being tested in Wellington in another bid to find the trigger for an illness threatening yellow-eyed penguin chicks.
Department of Conservation vet Kate McInnes said testing would take a ''good two to three weeks'' in the Ministry of Primary Industries laboratories in Wellington.
Doc has been working on the problem with Massey University for a decade and has been unable to find the cause of the avian diphtheria.
''We should know if there's a virus present, and that's one of our big question marks ... we just don't know if that bacteria we find is the main cause of the problem or if it comes on after a virus,'' Ms McInnes said.
The disease caused ulceration of chicks' mouths, making it difficult for them to eat and breathe, and could be fatal if left untreated.
It is thought the disease first appeared in 1999, and in bad years killed up to 90% of chicks. It was one of several factors preventing the mainland population from growing.
Last week, a team led by vets Ms McInnes and Kelly Buckle, of the MPI, took samples from chicks on Otago Peninsula.
''It's great we've got this co-ordinated inter-agency effort to investigate the underlying cause,'' Ms McInnes said.
''Having the leading experts examining these chicks in the field will give us the best chance of finding the trigger, which could lead to the discovery of a cure - hopefully a vaccine - or better ways of managing the disease, to prevent mass mortality of chicks in the future,'' she said.
