The results reveal the status of the birds system by showing both the pathenogenic and the nonpathenogenic organisms present. A culture is done by taking a bacterial or fungal sample from a site and transferring it to a culture plate. Culture plates must be refrigerated, and should be removed from the refrigerator one hour before the culture is done. The plates should always be kept upside down, that is to say with the clear cover to the table and the media side up. This allows all excess moisture to stay on the cover and avoids contamination of the agar itself.
Most plates give off some degree of moisture.
The plate should be left out and be allowed to reach room temperature before the plate is used. The culture should be done in a draft free area so that no air currents carry airborne contaminants onto the plate. Also avoid breathing directly on or touching the surface of the agar with anything other than the inoculation loop in order to eliminate any form of contamination which would prejudice the results. A culture plate can contain one or multiple types of agar. The most common types used as culture media to check for the pathogenic gram negative bacteria that infect birds are EMBL, Blood Agar and Mac Conkey Agar.