MiDOG Announces Microbial Test for UTI

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Press release: MiDOG

MiDOG, LLC announced today the launch of its new Urine Collection Kit and Test for the diagnosis of bacterial and fungal pathogens in canine urinary tract infections (UTIs). Canine UTIs can be triggered by different causes such as kidney stone formation, prostate disease, or tumors. In many cases, bacterial infections or other pathogens can result in painful urination in the animal. Thousands of pathogens are known to infect animals and humans but only a fraction of these pathogens are readily detectable using current diagnostic methods such as culture testing, which has long been the gold standard for detecting bacteria in urine samples. The MiDOG Urine All-in-One Microbial Test offers a more accurate diagnosis to the veterinary practitioner and faster relief for the patient.

Using traditional culture testing methods, false negatives (‘no growth’) are prevalent and can lead not only to an incorrect diagnosis but also to incorrect treatment of the patient often from inadequate antibiotics being prescribed to cure the UTI. For example, aerobic microorganisms such as E. coli, Staphylococcus, Enterobacter, and Pseudomonas are easy to detect with culture testing, while anaerobic or facultative anaerobic organisms such as Klebsiella, Proteus spp., Corynebacterium urealyticum, or Mycoplasma canis can easily be missed. Therefore, about 20-25% of these culture tests come back as a false-negative result.

With the prevalence of bacterial resistance already a major health concern in the human population, veterinarians will likely soon be tasked to abide by antimicrobial stewardship programs for animals. With this in mind, scientists at MiDOG have developed an efficient, accurate way to test for the presence of bacterial and fungal pathogens, including antibiotic resistances. Using the latest technologies in microbial DNA sequencing to detect specific nucleotide sequences within an organism’s genome has facilitated the development of the new All-in-One Test to detect and identify all aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and fungi in a single urine sample with 100% accuracy, including, most importantly, non-cultivatable organisms.

“I do not worry about getting a false negative urinary tract infection reading with the MiDOG All-in-One Microbial Test as I do when I use urine culture tests. Several times when I tested urine samples using the traditional urine culture method, the same urine sample had ‘no growth’ but the MiDOG Test detected pathogens,” explained Dr. Mike Morgan, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Quail Animal Hospital located in Irvine, California. He continued, “This test helped me to diagnose the canine patient more accurately and therefore I was able to prescribe the appropriate medication to treat the urinary infection.”

“Using microbial DNA sequencing technology provides the veterinarian more accurate test results in a much shorter amount of time,” said Dr. Janina A. Krumbeck, Director of MiDOG, LLC. “The MiDOG Microbial Test offers quick and accurate results to help the veterinarian pinpoint the specific pathogen that is causing the UTI. Therefore, the correct antibiotic can then be prescribed, reducing the recurrence of the UTI, while also promoting good antibiotic stewardship.”

The MiDOG technology can also be used for any other clinical samples, including dermatitis or otitis applications in dogs and other animals. Turnaround times for the MiDOG All-in-One Test is typically 2-5 business days.