Methods for identifying bacteria directly from clinical samples or samples of diseased tissues

What is it about?

For a long time, diagnosis of infectious diseases in domestic animals has relied on isolating the infectious agent by culturing it in the laboratory. Now, there are many methods to identify infectious agents that do not rely on culture. The most commonly performed are polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. Other methods include multiplex PCR assays, DNA microarrays, in situ hybridization, massive parallel DNA sequencing, microbiome profiling, molecular typing of pathogens, identification of antimicrobial resistance genes, and mass spectrometry. This article discusses these methods for diagnosis of infectious disease, with a focus on quality control in the laboratory, and the idea that diagnosis of infectious disease depends not only on identifying the infectious agent but considering these laboratory tests in light of the clinical and pathologic findings in the animals affected by the disease.

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