There are situations where veterinarians would like to do ancillary testing on the brain tissue of animals that also require rabies testing. The CFIA laboratory only performs rabies testing; therefore, in these cases a portion of brain tissue must be withheld from the CFIA in order to complete additional tests.

The only procedure available to veterinarians requiring ancillary testing is to send the entire brain to the Animal Health Laboratory (Guelph or Kemptville). The AHL has developed a protocol directly with the CFIA to ensure the correct tissue samples from the brain are collected and shipped to the CFIA for rabies testing.

If a veterinarian informs you that they would like to perform ancillary testing on a rabies suspect animal then they are responsible for obtaining the sample and getting it to the AHL. They must contact the laboratory directly to obtain instructions for how to package and ship the sample. There are two AHL locations in Ontario and their contact information is listed below:

Animal Health Laboratory Contact Information
  • Guelph Location: 519-824-4120 ext 54530
  • Kemptville Location: 613-258-8320

In these situations please complete your rabies specimen collection request form for the OAVT Public Health Rabies Response Program as you normally would and include the Animal Health Laboratory's information in the "Collection Location Information" fields. The OAVT RRP will work with the Animal Health Laboratory to arrange for collection and shipping of the sample to the CFIA lab for rabies testing.