Collection

Clostridioides difficile ribotyping network (CDRN) service

The CDRN laboratory provides access to Clostridioides difficile culture, ribotyping and enhanced fingerprinting services, according to standardised submission criteria.

From:
UK Health Security Agency
Published
8 August 2014
Last updated
16 January 2026 — See all updates

National CDRN services are centralised at the UKHSA Laboratory in Leeds (embedded within Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust).

The laboratory carries full UKAS accreditation (ISO 15189:2022) customer number 10883.

PCR-ribotyping

There are standardised criteria for submission of faecal samples for ribotyping.

There is a prescribed 14-day turnaround time for this test.

C. difficile toxin-positive faecal samples or C. difficile isolates can be submitted for this test.

Enhanced fingerprinting

Enhanced fingerprinting using multilocus variable tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) is also available on request.

There are criteria for submission of enhanced fingerprinting requests.

There is a prescribed 14-day turnaround time for this test.

No further material needs to be submitted for this test.

Documents

Updates to this page

Published 8 August 2014
Last updated 16 January 2026 show all updates

  1. Updated the UKAS accreditation ISO number.

  2. Added link to 'Surveillance protocol for the C. difficile ribotyping network'.

  3. Updated page details.

  4. Amended list of participating laboratories.

  5. First published.

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