About us

We provide fast, accurate diagnostic services for veterinary hospitals and practices, delivering clinically relevant information to veterinary professionals as quickly as possible.

The microbiology laboratory participates in the Animal and Plant Health Agency Quality Assurance Scheme, which provides proficiency testing for veterinary laboratories. All work in our laboratory is carried out according to specific standard operating procedures (SOPs) developed for each of our laboratory activities.

Our team has extensive experience in isolating bacteria and fungi from clinical specimens and post‑mortem tissues (including for forensic investigations) from companion animals, equine, farm animals, and zoo and exotic species.

The laboratory has recently benefited from significant investment in new state‑of‑the‑art technologies, enabling faster, more reliable and accurate clinical results. Bacterial species identification is performed using Matrix‑Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time‑of‑Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI‑TOF MS, Bruker Daltonics). Rapid bacterial strain typing for outbreak investigations, including hospital‑acquired infections and environmental surveillance, is carried out using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with the IR Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics).

We routinely provide antimicrobial susceptibility testing using automated systems to determine Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) by broth microdilution (Sensititre OptiRead, Thermo Scientific, UK) and to automatically read disc diffusion results (SIRScan, i2A, France).

Teaching

Diagnostic activities within our veterinary microbiology service directly support undergraduate and postgraduate education and training in animal infectious diseases. Our diagnostic work is essential for teaching veterinary students the practical aspects of clinical microbiology required to achieve the Day One competences set by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS).

In addition, students from a range of undergraduate programmes, as well as those undertaking postgraduate training at Master’s, PhD and European Diploma levels, receive hands‑on training in our laboratory.

Training centre

The Veterinary Microbiology Diagnostic Laboratory is an approved Training Centre with a Standard Residency Programme by the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM).

Research

Microbiology diagnostic submissions provide an important resource for research and publications in veterinary clinical microbiology. Our current research focuses on antimicrobial resistance surveillance in companion animals, infection control, and the monitoring of hospital‑acquired infections in veterinary hospitals.

Explore our VetCLIN AMR research project.

Our recent work has focused on introducing and evaluating rapid diagnostic tests, particularly direct pathogen detection in clinical specimens using MALDI‑TOF and real‑time sequence‑based diagnostics for companion animal samples. Rapid diagnostics plays a crucial role in tackling antimicrobial resistance and reducing unnecessary antibiotic use in animals.

Selected publications can be viewed in our research pages.

Find out more about the range of specialist services provided by the laboratory. 

To enquire about any aspects of the veterinary microbiology diagnostic services or to discuss a research project with us contact the laboratory via at vetbact@liverpool.ac.uk.