We get dead animals for necropsy frequently. Sometimes, the carcasses are frozen. We thaw the frozen carcass to conduct the necropsy.
For bacteriological culture, can I use frozen (at -8°C or -20°C for 2-4 days) tissue or carcass at necropsy (lung, liver, stomach, intestine, kidney)?
What can be the problem if frozen–thawed tissues are used for bacterial culture?
Can I consider the culture positive or negative result dependable?
Can anyone give me a reference regarding this issue for further study?
Unless frozen immediately, bacteria (esp. Gram negative) will proliferate in the carcass. The same will happen in the thawing procedure. Freezing may affect viability of some microbes. Perhaps one can judge micro qualitatively. quantiative est is prog not that valiud.
Per Gram neg - some folks use PEA (phenylethyl alcohol) agar if seeking Gram positive bacteria.
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