Supporting the CVM with pathology services

Our department provides biopsy and necropsy services to the College’s clinical departments and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, necropsy service to private practitioners throughout Georgia and diagnostic mail-in necropsy service for clients outside the state. In addition, we have several affiliated service labs that support research throughout the College.

Our mail-in services are available to all veterinarians outside of the State of Georgia. Please complete the Mail in Biopsy Form or Ophthalmic Form. Veterinarians in the state of Georgia who need these services should contact our Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.


Comparative Pathology Lab

The Comparative Pathology Laboratory at the University of Georgia provides services to researchers on and off campus, in government and in the area of laboratory animal pathology and research pathology.

Services

Our commitment to you:

  • Timeline: 7-21 business days for routine submissions
  • Electronic reporting of findings, evaluation, and interpretation
  • Publication of quality digital images with caption and legend
Submissions

Shipping address:

Comparative Pathology Laboratory
Department of Pathology
501 DW Brooks Drive
Athens, GA 30602-7388

General shipping guidelines:

Live research animals
Please contact us to arrange shipment of live animals.

Fresh tissues
Each fresh tissue should be placed in a leak-proof plastic container (preferably a screw-top container) and maintained at refrigerator temperatures from collection to receipt at the laboratory.

Tissues for histopathological examination
Samples should be fixed in adequate amount (i.e. 10-20 times volume of fixative to volume of tissues) of 10% neutral buffered formalin prior to shipment and should be submitted in a wide-mouth, leak-proof container. Samples need not to be refrigerated.

Federal regulations:

Packaging and labeling of diagnostic specimens are governed by applicable federal regulations. Packaging should be adequate as to prevent leakage or breakage as shippers may face prosecution if spillage and damage to mail, equipment, or personnel occurs during shipment (even if the material involved is not infectious or hazardous). The shipping container should be appropriately labeled (i.e., “Perishable, Biologic Specimen”, etc.) on the outside.


Clinical Pathology Lab

The Clinical Pathology Laboratory offers a wide variety of clinical testing for our Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and both in-house and contract researchers. The Clinical Pathology Laboratory provides testing in the areas of hematology, clinical chemistry, endocrinology, urinalysis, coagulation and cytology.

Services

We perform more than 300,000 tests annually, including approximately 11,000 complete blood cell counts (CBCs), 10,000 biochemical profiles, 3,000 cytologic specimens, 4,000 urinalyses, 600 coagulation profiles, and 1,500 endocrinology tests. We also offer a variety of unusual or non-routine analyses that are performed by subcontract in other specialized clinical laboratories throughout the country. Major instrumentation in our laboratory includes a Bayer-Advia 120 hematology analyzer, Roche Cobas c501 biochemical analyzer, STA Compact Max, Abaxis Vetscan biochemical analyzer, Immulite 2000 xpi for hormone assays, and the Nova pHOx Ultra for blood gas, acid-base, and electrolyte determinations.

Submissions

If you are a veterinarian in the state of Georgia, all clinical pathology requests go through our Veterinary Diagnostic Lab.

Hours of operation:

  • 8:00 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday-Friday
  • Limited laboratory testing available on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 9-10 a.m.
  • Around-the-clock emergency service available

Histology Lab

We are a full service lab that serves the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine along with various biomedical investigators and researchers from many different fields in- and outside of the university.

Services

The Histology Lab offers a wide variety of services from Routine Histology to Special Staining and Immunohistochemistry as well as Frozen Sectioning.

Submissions

For Routine Histology – Process, Embed, H&E Staining:

Please send formalin fixed samples in properly labeled cassettes in a tightly sealed container with 10% Neutral Buffered Formalin. If you are hand-labeling your cassettes, please be sure to do so with a KP Marker or equivalent chemical resistant pen. Please do not use pencil, regular pen, or sharpies as the labels WILL wash off during processing.

For Special Stains and/or IHC:

If sending unprocessed samples, please follow the same instructions as above for Routine Histology.  If you already have FFPE samples, please send the entire tissue block for us to cut slides from, or 5 unstained slides from each block for each stain.  We will return the block and any unstained slides with your finished product.

For Frozen Services:

Please contact the lab and speak to Craig Dixon if you would like frozen services as each case requires individualized service.

We also accommodate many other various requests from recuts to bullets for PCR to deparaffinization of unstained slides. For more information on those services, please see our routine submission form or contact the lab directly.


Clinical Flow Cytometry

The Clinical Flow Cytometry lab serves the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories and the College of Veterinary Medicine. We utilize flow cytometry to determine the immunophenotype of cells by recognizing normal and abnormal expression of cell surface markers on T cells (helper T cells, cytotoxic T cells), B cells, neutrophils and monocytes. Flow cytometry is available for dogs and cats.

When is flow cytometry used?
  • To help distinguish between reactive and neoplastic lymphocytes
  • To determine if lymphoma / leukemia is of B or T cell origin and in some cases, identify specific subtypes of B or T cell lymphoma / leukemia which will aid in prognosis
  • To differentiate between lymphoid and non-lymphoid (myeloid / monocytic) neoplasia

We’re UGA Vet Med, and our

passion powers our commitment.