9 Identifying pathogens in your workplace

You should now have a better understanding of the microbiology techniques used in a veterinary microbiology laboratory for isolating and identifying pathogenic bacteria of particular interest for diagnosis and/or AMR surveillance. Before you finish the course, complete this final activity, which will help you think about your laboratory’s diagnostic capacity.

Activity 14: Identifying pathogens in your workplace

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Think about the six types of pathogen of interest in farm animals and reflect and make notes in response to the following questions.

  1. Are you identifying all of these pathogens to the required level in your laboratory?
  2. Are you confident that the identification is accurate?
  3. Are there areas where you feel your laboratory may not be reliably identifying pathogens? Which pathogen(s) does this apply to?
  4. How could the diagnostic capacity of your laboratory be improved and what are the barriers to achieving this? For example, what extra equipment and reagents might you need? Are the correct controls being used? Do staff need more training?

Finally, think about how you would make a case to your Laboratory Manager to convince them to support you in improving your laboratory’s diagnostic capacity.

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Discussion

You may find it helpful to discuss your thoughts with colleagues before talking to your Laboratory Manager.

You may also wish to return to this activity when you have completed the Quality assurance and AMR surveillance course.

8 Fundamentals of quality control for isolating and identifying bacteria

10 End-of-course quiz