Chromogenic culture media complements diagnostic cytology in the visual identification of pathogenic skin bacteria in dogs and cats.

In dogs and cats, bacterial skin infections (pyoderma and otitis externa) are a common cause for visiting the veterinary clinic. The most frequent skin pathogens are , , , and , often requiring different therapeutic antibiotic protocols. Unfavorably, existing diagnostics based on cytology cannot reveal bacterial species but only bacterial shapes such as cocci or rods.

How Accurate Are Veterinary Clinicians Employing Flexicult Vet for Identification and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Urinary Bacteria?

Antibiotics are frequently used for treating urinary tract infections (UTI) in dogs and cats. UTI often requires time-consuming and expensive antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Alternatively, clinicians can employ Flexicult Vet, an affordable chromogenic agar with added antibiotics for in-clinic AST.

Determination of estrogenic potential in waste water without sample extraction.

This study describes the modification of the ER-Calux assay for testing water samples without sample extraction (NE-(ER-Calux) assay). The results are compared to those obtained with ER-Calux assay and a theoretical estrogenic potential obtained by GC-MSD. For spiked tap and waste water samples there was no statistical difference between estrogenic potentials obtained by the three methods.

Integration of GC-MSD and ER-Calux® assay into a single protocol for determining steroid estrogens in environmental samples.

There are many published studies that use either chemical or biological methods to investigate steroid estrogens in the aquatic environment, but rarer are those that combine both. In this study, gas chromatography with mass selective detection (GC-MSD) and the ER-Calux(®) estrogenicity assay were integrated into a single protocol for simultaneous determination of natural (estrone--E1, 17β-estradiol--E2, estriol--E3) and synthetic (17α-ethinylestradiol--EE2) steroid estrogens concentrations and the total estrogenic potential of environmental samples. For integration purposes, several solvents were investigated and the commonly used dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) in the ER-Calux(®) assay was replaced by ethyl acetate, which is more compatible with gas chromatography and enables the same sample to be analysed by both GC-MSD and the ER-Calux(®) assay.

Dynamics of steroid estrogen daily concentrations in hospital effluent and connected waste water treatment plant.

Hospital effluent and connected waste water treatment plant (WWTP) influent and effluent were sampled daily to determine the levels and inter-day variations of three naturally occurring steroid estrogens: estrone, 17β-estradiol, estriol, and synthetic 17α-ethinylestradiol. After solid phase extraction, interferences were removed with a silica gel clean-up step and the samples analysed using gas chromatography with mass selective detection (GC-MSD). The determined inter-day concentrations in hospital effluent were between 8.