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Specimen Submittal
- Live and non-decomposed dead animals, fresh and formalin-fixed tissues, whole blood, serum, milk and feed are commonly submitted specimens. Animals for necropsy are accepted from both veterinarians and owners; submittal forms are available from the laboratory web site and printed forms can be requested from the laboratories. A complete history should accompany all submissions and include the address and telephone of the owner as well as the age, breed and sex of the animal. Specimens mailed to the laboratory should be clearly labeled, and submittal forms should accompany the specimens sealed in a separate plastic bag. Contaminated, decomposed, or inappropriate specimens will not be processed.
- In all cases the method of shipment should be an overnight service to maximize the reliability of any diagnostic test findings.
- When shipping specimens to the Rollins Laboratory use the address that corresponds to your method of shipment:
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United States Postal Service 1
Rollins Laboratory
1031 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1031 |
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United Parcel Service/Federal Express 2
Rollins Laboratory
2101 Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, NC 27607 |
1 The United States Postal Service does not deliver to this address on Saturdays. Any
specimens received by the state Mail Service Center after 7am on Friday will be delivered
to Rollins Laboratory the following Monday.
2 The United Parcel Service does not deliver to this address on Saturdays. Please contact
your local United Parcel Service representative to determine shipping and delivery times.
- Fresh tissues submitted for laboratory testing should be packed individually, and sealed in leak-proof containers or plastic bags, surrounded by ice packs and placed in an insulated box to slow decomposition. It is especially important to package intestines separately to prevent contamination of other tissues.
- Fecal specimens for parasitology should be kept cool in transit to prevent hatching of the parasite ova.
- Unclotted blood samples should be sent cooled, but not frozen.
- Serum should be poured off the clot, if possible, and sent to the laboratory either cooled or frozen. If paired samples are to be tested, the acute serum sample should be held frozen and sent to the laboratory with the convalescent serum.
- Formalin-fixed tissues should be no more than 1/4" thick, (formalin penetrates only 1/8" in the critical first 24 hours of fixing), and placed in a wide-mouth, leak-proof container with 5-10 times the volume of formalin to tissue. Tissues fixed for at least two days before sending to the laboratory can be shipped in smaller volumes of formalin. Fixed tissue being submitted for immunohistochemistry should be shipped to the laboratory within 1 day or less.
- Rabies testing is performed on fresh brain tissue. Unopened heads or fresh brain should be cooled, packed in a leak-proof insulated container with ice packs and sent by bus or courier to:
State Laboratory of Public Health
306 N. Wilmington Street
Raleigh, N.C. 27611
(919) 733-7656 (7:30 am - 5:00 pm weekdays)
(919) 733-4646 (nights, weekends, holidays)
It is against U.S. Postal regulations to send this type of specimen through the mail. If histopathology, culture or other procedure is needed in addition to rabies testing, please send the specimen to Rollins Laboratory first, and we will transfer it to the rabies laboratory.
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Accessions submitted to the NCVDLS, including carcasses, tissues and agents isolated from samples, become the property of the NCVDLS unless other arrangements are made in writing at the time of submission.
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Dr. David Marshall, Director
Rollins Laboratory
2101 Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 733-3986 |
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