Sample Collection and Shipment

Serum sampling

• Collect approximately 3-fold the amount of blood as the amount of serum required.
• Leave blood at room temperature until clotting is completed (up to 2 hours).
• Centrifuge clotted blood at 1000-3000 x g for 5-10 minutes and remove serum (supernatant) from clot.

Serum Storage

General recommendations:

• Keep sera cool
• Keep sample vials closed
• Do not store sera longer than 1 day at room temperature or 5 days at 4 °C prior to shipment; sera should be saved at -20 °C for longer periods of time.

Serum Volume

• In general, a total volume of 50-100 µl serum per animal is required to perform the complete panel of tests.
• Only the determination of LDH activity (for diagnosis of infection with lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus in mice) requires an additional volume of at least 100 µl serum (or plasma) per animal. Because of the high LDH concentration in erythrocytes, it is important to use nonhaemolysed samples. Please ship samples immediately after collection.

Serum Shipment

Cover letter:
You may use our serology submission form (Download PDF).

Specimens for which there is minimal likelihood that pathogens are present (based on the professional judgement of a veterinarian) may be shipped as Exempt Animal Specimens (without a UN number) if the following packaging conditions are met.

• Marking of packages: "EXEMPT ANIMAL SPECIMEN"
• The packaging consists of three components:
  1. one or more leak-proof primary receptacles. To facilitate sample processing in our laboratory, we encourage clients to place serum samples in Eppendorf tubes with conical bottom (1.5 ml or 0.7 ml).
  2. a leak-proof secondary packaging (with sufficient absorbent material between primary and secondary packaging)
  3. an outer packaging of adequate strength (e.g., padded envelope).

Other Samples

Faecal Samples

• Faecal samples for PCR analysis should be fresh and collected with sterile forceps. 2-3 faecal pellets per animal are generally adequate.
• To avoid cross contamination of samples, forceps should be replaced between samples.
• If several mice from the same hygienic unit shall be tested for the presence of Helicobacter spp., up to 10 faceal pellets (e.g. 2 pellets from each of 5 cages) can be pooled as single sample.
• Shipment: see serum shipment (the absorbent material between primary and secondary packaging may be omitted).

Organ Samples

• Collect organ samples for PCR analysis in a sterile manner and freeze at -20 °C to -80 °C.
• Ship on dry ice.