Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 142

The success of infectious disease diagnosis depends largely on the quality of the specimen and the conditions under which the specimen is transported and stored before it is processed in the laboratory. It would be naive to generalize; depending on the suspected agent and the test, the optimum sample and optimum conditions for stabilization during transport are variable. For example, if a bacterial agent is suspected, freezing the specimen could compromise future culture; however, DNA would remain intact and a PCR test relying on extracted bacterial DNA would be unaffected. Some viruses, on the other hand, can withstand freezing, especially if samples are stored in the proper media. There are specific transport media that stabilize viruses and prevent bacterial overgrowth. What this means, of course, is that if the cause of the disease is completely open and multiple tests are going to be performed, multiple types of samples are necessary. Collection is simpler if a certain agent is highly suspect, or if a single agent needs to be ruled in or out.

Because gastrointestinal disease and respiratory disease are the most common infectious diseases associated with morbidity and mortality in the shelter environment, the following section is devoted to the sampling of a cadaver in these types of outbreaks.