Fecal analysis: bacteriology

• Bacterial infections can cause severe diarrhea, especially in young animals.
• Fecal culture can demonstrate these bacteria and with sensitivity testing suggest effective antimicrobial therapy.

Alone

• Identification of bacterial causes of enteritis.
• Identification of intestinal carriers of zoonotic bacteria, eg Salmonella Salmonella spp , Campylobacter Campylobacter jejuni , certain types of E. coli, Clostridia spp, Yersina spp.

• Rectal sample or freshly voided feces.

Precautions

• Standard hygiene.

Sample storage

• Transport medium swabs ( rectal swab) or sterile container (feces or diarrhea sample).
• Refrigerate if sample is not being posted/processed immediately.

Sample transport

• Package according to postal regulations Transportation of diagnostic specimen.

• Growth on selective and nonselective media with identification of significant colonies.

• Widely available.

• May have false negative cultures when pathogens present.
• It is important to carry out at least two samplings as pathogens are excreted intermittently.

• Requires special knowledge and techniques for accurate isolation and identification of potential pathogens.

•  E. coli Escherichia coli and Campylobacter Campylobacter jejuni may be isolated from healthy dogs.
• Serotyping of E. coli isolates may be necessary before a result is considered significant, especially in adult.

• Significant organisms include: E. coli Escherichia coli (specific serotypes), Campylobacter Campylobacter jejuni , Salmonella spp Salmonella spp , Clostridia spp Clostridium botulinum , Yersinia spp.

• False negative culture results: if treatment with antimicrobials before sampling.

• Recent references from VetMedResource and PubMed.
• Marks S L et al (1999) Evaluation of methods to diagnose Clostridium perfringens-associated diarrhea in dogs. JAVMA 214 (3), 357-360.