Antibiotics
Clinical Evaluation of a Centralized In-Clinic Direct Culture and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Workflow for Canine and Feline Skin, Ear, and Urine Infections
By Cugmas B, Štruc E, Vesel U and 3 others.
Abstract
Background/objectives
Rapid antimicrobial decision-making in small-animal practice is limited by the turnaround time (≥2 days) of conventional laboratory-based culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Existing point-of-care and in-clinic tests can provide faster results, but their performance often depends on user experience. This study evaluated VetBac, a hybrid workflow in which the test is conducted in the clinic, while experts centrally interpret bacterial growth on plates.
Methods
We analyzed 60 interpretable plates from canine and feline skin, ear, and urine infections. In the clinic, samples were inoculated onto chromogenic Mueller-Hinton agar plates, after which antibiotic discs were applied. Plates were incubated for 16-20 h, photographed, and interpreted centrally by an expert. For comparison, samples were submitted in parallel to standard microbiology laboratories.