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Facilities

Explore our state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS)

MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker Daltonics) has revolutionised clinical microbiology workflows and is now the reference method for routine bacterial identification in human diagnostic laboratories. Expansion of bacterial and fungal databases has enabled identification of an increasing number of well-characterised veterinary-specific organisms, making it a reliable, rapid and cost-efficiency method suitable for veterinary laboratories.

MALDI-TOF MS greatly enhances veterinary microbiology diagnostics by shortening culture reporting times, enabling earlier detection of antimicrobial resistance, and strengthening biosecurity and infection control in hospital settings. In our laboratory, preliminary MALDI-TOF identification results are routinely reported to clinicians within 24 hours of sample receipt for fast-growing organisms, or as soon as growth is detected for slower-growing isolates. For positive blood and synovial fluid cultures submitted in blood culture bottles, we also provide direct pathogen identification using the Sepsityper kit, reducing time to bacterial identification by up to an additional 24 hours.

We offer MALDI-TOF MS identification services outside of our networks, such as to external laboratories, allowing submission of veterinary bacterial isolates on agar plates for diagnostic purposes. Download the MALDI-TOF MS submission form for this service. 

This service is also available for research projects, and we welcome inquiries to discuss potential applications of the technology.

IR Biotyper

We provide provide bacterial strain typing of clinical isolates including from hospital-acquired infections and hospital or other environmental isolates of concern by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy using the IR Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics).

The IR Biotyper generates highly specific fingerprint-like metabolic signatures that can enable discrimination of medically relevant bacteria at the strain level, enabling rapid bacterial strain typing for outbreak investigation, hospital epidemiology and infection control. This can be applied to investigate, for example, clusters of bovine environmental mastitis in dairy herds or the suspected spread of bacterial pathogens associated to nosocomial infection in veterinary hospitals, including small animal and equine clinical settings.  

Read more on the application of the IR Biotyper for infection control of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at the University of Liverpool Small Animal and Equine Referral Hospitals.

View our IR Biotyper poster (pdf, 881KB).