The mission of the Virology Section is to detect and identify viruses that can affect animal health, as well as to check the elicited immune response to viral exposure due to acute infection, chronic infection, or vaccination. Testing methods include virus isolation, antigen detecting fluorescent antibody (FA) tests, antibody detecting indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) tests, antigen capture ELISA, antibody capture ELISA, antibody detecting virus neutralization (VN) tests, and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests. For the complete list of viral tests, fees, and turn-around times, please Click Here.
If you are requesting virology tests, remember to keep samples moist and cool and to send by overnight transport. The following are important points to keep in mind:
- Serum samples should not have any hemolysis and have adequate amount for each test requested.
- Tissues should be very fresh and collected aseptically. Submit generous portions of tissue in clean bags such as Whirl-paks.
- When submitting swab specimens, please use commercial viral transport media. In the absence of viral transport media, submit swabs in sterile, sealed vials with several drops of saline, to prevent desiccation. Cotton, plastic, wood-handled, Dacron, and other synthetic swabs are all acceptable. Do not submit swabs in gel tubes such as Amies for virology testing.
- Submit ear notch samples individually in separate bags or tubes with clear identification.