Microbiology
The Microbiology section of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine- Clinical Diagnostic Laboratories provides high-quality diagnostic services for bacterial and fungal diseases of animals, including companion animals, horses, livestock, laboratory, exotic and wild animals. Our goal is to provide timely and accurate identification of infectious agents to support veterinarians in treating their patients and improving animal health.
Our services include:
- Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial culture
- Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for bacteria and yeast
- Fungal culture
- Mycoplasma culture (only supported for Bovine, Canine, Caprine, Equine, Feline, Ovine, & Marine Mammals)
- Blood culture
- Bacterial enteric pathogen culture
- Rapidly growing Mycobacterium culture
- Select Clostridial toxin detection
- 4DX Plus SNAP test
- Research microbiology – we provide testing for research projects on bacteria and fungi that affect animals
We are more than happy to assist with test selection, provide recommendations for specimen collection and/or transport, and to provide information on research submissions. Please contact the Microbiology Department by email at vetmicrobiology@ucdavis.edu and our staff will make every effort possible to respond to your inquiry within 24-48 hours.
Our staff are experienced, highly trained, and includes laboratorians who are state-licensed clinical laboratory scientists (CLSs). In addition, all diagnostic testing is overseen by a veterinary clinical microbiologist, who is a board-certified veterinarian with advanced training in infectious disease diagnostics. We provide consultation on test results and diagnostic testing strategies.
We utilize a variety of methods for microbial identification, including MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, biochemistry, and phenotypic techniques. We perform antimicrobial susceptibility testing by broth microdilution, disk diffusion, and gradient strip, depending on the needs of a particular case. We have a wide variety of antimicrobials available for testing, including routine medications and those reserved for difficult-to-treat infections. We can provide customized antimicrobial susceptibility testing plans for challenging clinical situations. We offer antimicrobial consultation services Monday-Friday for clinicians with treatment-specific questions. Our antimicrobial consultation offers solutions for difficult-to-treat and multi-drug-resistant infections.
For more information regarding Microbiology consultation services, please contact the laboratory Monday-Friday 8am-5pm PST by phone at (530) 752-9445.
General Guidance for Submission of Samples for Microbiology:
- Submission of tissues and fluids is preferable to swabs when possible.
- It is important that specimens submitted for microbial testing stay moist. Swabs and small pieces of tissue may be placed in a transport system or a small volume of saline. It is very difficult to recover tissue from transport containers designed for swabs; a larger diameter transport container, such as anaerobic transport media, will yield better results.
- Anaerobic culture is intended for use for conditions like abscesses or anatomical sites that are normally sterile. Please indicate specific organism(s) of interest. Transport Media also improves the recovery of anaerobic organisms. Both aerobes and anaerobes can be cultured from Anaerobic Transport Media.
- Provide signalment and history information for every submission. We read and use all the information that you provide!
- Let the laboratory know if you have specific organisms on your differential diagnosis list as some organisms require special laboratory procedures and/or prolonged incubation times that we can offer if we know that a particular organism is a concern.