Just a reminder, that as well as testing clinically healthy animals for M. bovis, we are also able to test material from suspect clinical cases. For example, we can test milk from suspect mastitis cases; lung if you suspect M. bovis could be involved in a pneumonia you find at post-mortem, or joint fluid if you suspect M. bovis could be the cause of synovitis/arthritis.
All mastitis milk samples sent to our laboratories (for culture) are routinely tested for M. bovis but the testing is not immediate. If you want to know urgently (e.g. if a farm has had a string of mastitic cows with negative cultures) we can test samples more quickly.
M. bovis PCR testing is performed twice weekly depending on the numbers of samples received. Depending on the timing of receipt you could get a result in 1-5 working days. If you have strong suspicions of M. bovis infection call MPI’s hotline, but we are still able to do the testing.
Please note: The turn-around-time stated above applies to M. bovis negative samples, as positive samples will still need to be confirmed by MPI.