Diagnostics

Diagnostic Plan

The diagnostic plan is a scientific preventive health program using a team approach, including you, the producer, your veterinarian, and a laboratory. A licensed attending veterinarian is required to be involved in any diagnostic and autogenous work with Addison Biological Laboratory. An Addison Biological Laboratory technician consults with your veterinarian to help identify and diagnose specific herd health problems. Diagnostic processing takes 5-8 working days and results go to the veterinarian on the case; please contact your veterinarian for results.

Guidelines for sample submission of…

Pinkeye Samples: Culture cattle’s eyes at the earliest stages of pinkeye (actively tearing, untreated animals – ideally NOT chronic cases) by gently rolling a sterile swab under the lower eyelid to recover lacrimal fluid. Please avoid touching the eyeball and any other part of the animal with the swab. Place the swab into the companying sterile tube and all swabs into a Ziploc bag and refrigerate promptly. Keep swabs cool and sealed to prevent drying out. DO NOT FREEZE.

• Keep in the refrigerator until shipping and try to ship the same day as sampling, if not the following day.
• Please complete a Pinkeye Submission Form and include with the samples to be submitted. Click here for Pinkeye Submission Form.
• Pinkeye Culture Kits containing instructions, submission form, and sterile culturette swabs are available upon request.

Pinkeye Sample Collection Instructional Video:

Intestinal Samples: Submissions for culture and sensitivity should be packaged separately from lung, liver, brain and other tissue samples.

Nasal Swabs: Samples should be submitted using culturette swabs with transport media and not placed in broth.

Isolation of Haemophilus: Due to the nature of the organism, tissues should be submitted immediately. The lung sample can be placed in glycerin or frozen before shipment.

Milk Samples: Bulk milk tank sample is recommended along with separate milk samples taken from infected cows. When drawing individual cow samples, ensure that teats are cleaned to remove surface contaminants and/or disinfectants before drawing diagnostic samples. Samples may be drawn from 3-4 individually infected cows. Freeze sample overnight before shipping.

Click here for Specimen Submission Form.

Other Tips:

• For best results send specimens, swabs, milk, and plates, accompanied with a completed Specimen Submission Form, in the early part of the week.
• Include ice packs with all samples submitted. If shipment takes longer than 2 days, ship them overnight or at least a 2nd day service.
• Do not ship on Friday or Saturday. Proper shipment scheduling will avoid bacterial overgrowth of samples.
• Tissue submitted for bacteriology should be fresh, not formalized.
• Including a plate culture can speed up results and help in the isolation of bacterial pathogens, but please include a sample of tissue in case of plate contamination or poor environmental conditions during shipment. Pure culture isolates should be submitted on an agar plate or slant rather than in broth cultures.