Kevin W. Smith, CLT

Bacteriology Manager

Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network

Oakwood, Ga 30566

Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network is primarily involved in environmental testing for Salmonella for several hundred poultry growers producing eggs and meat in Georgia and out-of-state growers serving Georgia. As the state agency for the National Poultry Improvement Plan, we are experiencing a dramatic increase in testing volume in response to new FDA rules for more intensive monitoring of poultry growers, which came after a recent major national outbreak.

In the Bacteriology Lab, we have a 12-person team that typically analyses between 3,000 and 7,000 environmental samples from the poultry houses (floor, boots and dust swabs) per month against over 2,000 types of Salmonella. If a meat grower tests positive, we will culture the birds. If an egg grower tests positive, especially for some of the more virulent strains of Salmonella, that grower has to provide us with 1,000 eggs every two weeks for two months. That is significant volume for an already busy lab and creates an all-hands-on-deck event for us.

Because of the volume of tests we do, we cannot afford to purchase prepared media, so we make our own media in large quantities. For one of the broths we use, we can go through up to 30 liters per day. We had people constantly boiling media to keep up, which took up a lot of time that could have been spent on other higher-level lab activities.

We purchased the Masterclave 528 because we needed an instrument with quick turnaround time, which could handle high volumes and was easy to use. Of all the instrumentation we looked at on the market, Masterclave 528 was only alternative for us. Would have needed to buy two instruments of what competitors had to offer.

Once we got the financing in place, we were up and running right away. The instrument shipped quickly, was installed promptly and staff was trained in a couple of days. It is very easy to maintain and clean up. The Masterclave 528 has exceeded all of our expectations. Now, within two hours, we can make the same amount of media it used to take us a full day to make. This has enabled us to free up staff for conducting more tests.

The Masterclave 528 is very economical in the amount of space is takes up and is very flexible and mobile. We are planning to use the instrument in two lab locations in a new facility we are building. We have already included connections for the Masterclave in the lab plans.

Masterclave 528 has really done an excellent job. It is designed just for what we need, so it has been a perfect fit for us.