Methods of species identification of fungi of the genus <i>Candida</i>. Part III. Automated systems and rarely used tests

It is imperative that pathogenic agents are identified accurately to the species level. The implementation of automatic systems for the identification of Candida yeasts is associated with a large number of tests performed by a given unit, which certainly has a further impact on the price of a single test and the use of devices. Hence, automatic systems are widely used in high-throughput laboratories, e.g. in commercial laboratories with a wide range of activities. Veterinary clinics with their own microbiological unit usually use classical identification methods or semi-automatic systems based on biochemical tests for independent interpretation of the results. Nevertheless, the increased number of invasive procedures, inherent in prolonged hospitalization of animals, and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy, leads to the conclusion that using automatic fungal identification systems in veterinary laboratories is only a matter of time, and their implementation may leave the classical techniques obsolete. This article provides an overview and discussion of automatic systems as well as new, rapid methods of diagnosing Candida fungi. Particular attention has been focused on Vitek YBC, Vitek 2 ID-YST, Abbot Quantum II, and Microbial ID systems