Multiple Blood Cultures for Identification of Bacteremia in Dogs

ArticleLast Updated May 20231 min read

Source

Neumann N, Solis SAF, Crawford S, Rogovskyy AS. Are multiple blood cultures advantageous for canine patients? J Vet Diagn Invest. 2023;10406387231164095. doi:10.1177/10406387231164095 


Research Note

Successful treatment of bacteremic patients depends on timely detection and identification of bacteria. Guidelines for collecting and processing blood samples for culture, including recommendations for collection of multiple samples, are well established in human medicine. Standards in veterinary medicine, however, are not well defined, and often only a single blood sample is submitted for culture. Because human medicine studies demonstrate collecting multiple samples improves detection rates, this study retrospectively compared rates of blood-borne pathogen detection between single and multiple blood culture approaches in 177 dogs with suspected bacteremia. Culture of 3 blood samples increased the detection rate by 19.5% compared with single sampling; however, optimal time between sample collections is unknown.