The impact ofurine storage methods onthe results ofquantitative bacterial culture indog and cat.

Abstract

Quantitative bacterial culture (QBC) isthe gold standard for determining urinary tract infections. However, the majority ofurine samples were sent toalab for further bacterial culture. Therefore, the storage condition was vital tomaintain the quality and accuracy ofthe urine samples. The main objective ofour study was toexamine the urine QBC outcomes of(1) immediate culture, (2) culture after urine sample storage atambient temperature for 24 h, and (3) culture after urine sample storage at4°C for 24hours. There were 49 feline samples and 30 canine samples included inthis study. All QBC samples kept atambient temperature and refrigerator were consistent with immediate QBC incats. Eight positive results from immediate QBC were inaccordance with refrigerated results indogs. There were ten positive results inthe room-temperature sample with two false-positive results. Our study showed that storing conditions atroom temperature orrefrigeration for 24 h does not impact the results ofQBC incat urine samples. For dog samples, chilled samples have ahigher accuracy rate than room temperature samples, although the overall agreement was still satisfactory.