#Text and pictures: Heidi Hiitiö – Pinehill Goblin Oy Consulting (heidi.hiitio@icloud.com).

The introduction of PCR technology has revolutionized the field of veterinary diagnostics and gained increasingly acceptance and ground in mastitis diagnostics. High sensitivity and capability of detecting DNA makes PCR useful in detecting infections caused by pathogens that may not grow well in standard culture conditions, but have raised questions over the years of how it compares to conventional culture, is it too sensitive and how should the results be interpreted in practice?