Texas Department of State Health Services - Clinical Bacteriology Tests

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The following table has a listing of many of the organisms processed by this team. The average turnaround time stated is with the understanding that clinical specimens are high priority, and in the event of outbreak situations, the pure cultures referred for identification or confirmation will be delayed until outbreak activities are concluded.

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- A -				^ Top
Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Aeromonas species	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days	FDA
Afipia species (Cat Scratch Fever)	Identification	Pure culture on blood or chocolate agar slant	12-21 days
Afipia species (Cat Scratch Fever)	Isolation and identification	Blood, tissue	12-21 days
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Bacillus species	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	10-14 days
Bacillus cereus	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days	FDA
Bordetella pertussis (Pertussis)	Identification	Pure culture on Regan-Lowe or Bordet- Gengou agar slant	Negative 10 days Positive 4-6 days, results called	CDC
Bordetella pertussis (Pertussis)	Isolation from clinical specimen	Nasopharangeal swab in Regan-Lowe transport, ≤ 3 days may be shipped ambient, > 3 days ship on wet ice	Negative 10 days, positive 4-6 days called to submitter	CDC
Bartonella (Cat Scratch fever)	Identification	Pure culture on blood or chocolate agar slant	12-21 days
Bartonella (Cat Scratch fever)	Isolation from clinical specimens	Blood or tissue, frozen at -70˚C and shipped on dry ice or refrigerated at 4˚C and shipped on wet ice. (SPS is toxic to some Bartonella)	negative 21 days positive 12-21 days
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Campylobacter	Identification	Pure culture on agar blood or chocolate slant, campy gas pack	4-7 days	CDC
Campylobacter	Isolation from clinical specimen	Stool specimen in Cary-Blair, on wet ice packs Blood in blood culture bottle	Negative 3-5 days Positive 3-7 days	CDC
Corynebacterium species	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-10 days
Corynebacterium diphtheriae	Identification, and toxin testing	Pure culture on agar slant, preferrably Loeffler’s	4-7 days	CDC
Corynebacterium diphtheriae	Isolation and identification	Swab in stuart’s transport, aimes transport, silica gel, or on loeffler’s slant	2-5 days Positive results called to submitter	CDC
Chlamydia trachomatis	Genetic probe	Swab in GENPROBE transport tube	2-4 days	CDC
Chlamydia trachomatis	Amplified Genetic probe *Limited at present to approved sites	Urine, room temp- 24 hour transport; refrigerated 25-76 hr transport	2-4 days	CDC
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Escherichia coli	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days
Escherichia coli O157:H7	Identification and Serotyping; Shiga toxin testing	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days Serologically O157:H7 results called to submitter	CDC
Escherichia coli O157:H7	Isolation, identification, and serotyping; Shiga toxin testing	Stool specimen in Cary-Blair, Aimes, or Stuarts transport, in broth or McCorkey broth on wet ice packs	4-7 days Serologically O157:H7 results called to submitter	CDC
Shiga toxin producing E. coli (EHEC)	Identification and Serotyping; Shiga toxin testing	Pure culture on agar slant	7-10 days; referred to CDC if necessary Positive toxin results called to submitter	CDC
Shiga toxin producing E. coli (EHEC)	Isolation, identification, and serotyping; Shiga toxin testing	Stool specimen in Cary-Blair, Aimes, or Stuarts transport, on wet ice packs; Stool specimens on broth or MaCorkey broth, < 7 days old on wet ice packs, > 7 days old on dry ice		CDC
Enterococcus species	Identification and serotying; Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for Vancomycin resistance (Epidemiological data only)	Pure culture on agar slant.	4-10 days
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Fastidious gram negative or gram positive rods	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	14-21 days
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Haemophilus influenzae	Identification and serotyping	Pure culture on Chocolate agar slant	4-7 days
Haemophilus ducreyii	Identification	Pure culture on chocolate agar slant	10-14 days
Haemophilus ducreyii	Identification	Lesion scrapings, urogenital swab from infected area, transported on wet ice	Negative 21 days Positive 7-21 days
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Legionella species	Identification and DFA	Pure culture on BCYE slant	4-7 days	CDC
Legionella species	Isolation and identification	Sputum, bronchial washings, tracheal aspirates, lung biopsy, shipped on wet ice	Culture: Negative 15 days Positive 3-15 days called to submitter	CDC
Listeria species	Identification	Pure cultures on non-glucose containing agar slants	4-7 days	CDC FDA
Listeria species	Isolation and identification	Blood, CSF, amniotic fluid, placental tissue, fetal tissue; shipped on wet ice within 48 hours of collection	Negative 21 days Positive 5-14 days called to submitter	CDC FDA
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Neisseria gonorrhoeae	Identification , antimicrobial susceptibility studies to ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, tetracycline, and penicillin ( for epidemiological studies only)	Pure cultures on chocolate agar slants	4-7 days	CDC
Neisseria gonorrhoeae	Isolation and identification, antimicrobial susceptibility studies to ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, tetracycline, and penicillin ( for epidemiological studies only)	Throat, rectum, or other non-urogenital sites, or urogenital swabs on suspected sexual abuse cases submitted on Thayer-Martin, transgrow, or Martin-Lewis media	3-7 days	CDC
Neisseria meningiditis	Identification and serotyping	Pure cultures (isolated from sterile sites) on blood or chocolate agar slants	3-7 days Group C called to submitter	CDC
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Pasturella species	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	7-14 days
Plesiomonas shigelloides	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days	FDA
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Staphylococcus aureus	Identification, Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for Vancomycin resistance (for epidemiological purposes only), TSST-1 toxin for Toxic Shock syndrome	Pure culture on agar slant.	3-7 days Toxin positive results called to submitter	CDC FDA
Staphylococcus aureus	Isolation and Identification	Stool specimens on wet ice (Outbreak situations only)	2-4 days	CDC FDA
Streptococcus Group A	Identification, serogrouping	Pure cultures on agar slants	3-7 days	CDC
Streptococcus Group A	Isolation and Identification, and serogrouping	Throat swabs in stuarts or Aimes transport. (Outbreak situations only)	2-4 days	CDC
Streptococcus Group B	Identification, serogrouping	Pure cultures on agar slants	3-7 days	CDC
Streptococcus Group B	Isolation, identification, and serogrouping	Vaginal swabs	2-4 days Positive results called to submitter	CDC
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Vibrio cholerae O1	Identificaiton and seortyping	Pure culture on agar slant	2-7 days Positive called to submitter within 48 hours	FDA
Vibrio cholerae O1	Isolation, identification, and serotyping	Stool specimen in Cary-Blair on wet ice	2-10 days Positive called to submitter	FDA
Vibrio cholerae non-O1	Identificaiton and seortyping	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days	FDA
Vibrio cholerae non-O1	Isolation, identification, and serotyping	Stool specimen in Cary-Blair on wet ice	2-7 days Positive called to submitter	FDA
Vibrio parahaemolyticus	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days	FDA
Vibrio vulnificus	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days	CDC FDA
Vibrio sp.	Identification	Pure culture on agar slant	4-7 days
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Organism	Testing offered	What and How to Submit	Expected turnaround time for results	Additional Information
Yersinia enterocolitica and other species	Identification	Pure cultures on agar slants	4-7 days	FDA
Yersinia enterocolitica and other species	Isolation, identification	Stool in Cary-Blair, Stuarts, or Aimes transport, on wet ice	4-7 days	FDA