Respiratory Tract Culture

If specimen transport will be delayed for more than 2 hours, use a transport medium such as Stuart or Amies with charcoal.

Carefully collect samples from the trachea and nasal turbinates and arrange for sample transport. At RRDA, samples are plated on 5% sheep blood agar and incubated in 7% CO₂. The most commonly identified species include Streptococcus, Pasteurella, Actinobacillus and Bordetella.

For Mycoplasma pulmonis, primary cultures of the trachea, oropharynx, nasal turbinates, middle ear and/or uterus should be placed in a sucrose-phosphate transport medium and refrigerated or frozen during storage and transport. At RRDA, specimens are plated onto modified Dutch mycoplasma agar. Subcultures, to rule out L-phase bacteria, are plated on blood agar and inoculated into Frey's broth, followed by growth inhibition using specific rabbit anti-M. pulmonis antisera.