Welcome to the CDS site!

First visit our registration page to see the added benefits of registration as a CDS user.

This site is maintained as an on‑line resource for laboratories that perform antibiotic susceptibility testing. It was designed primarily for those who use the CDS method of testing but will be of interest to all who perform antibiotic susceptibility testing irrespective of the method used.

The CDS test is a high potency disc diffusion method of antibiotic susceptibility testing where the results are calibrated to an internationally accepted quantitative technique. It was developed in the late 1960s and made available to laboratories in Australia in an effort to improve their performance in susceptibility testing. The CDS is supported by the CDS Reference Laboratory that was based at Randwick NSW but recently has been relocated to St. George Hospital, Kogarah NSW. The laboratory constantly updates the CDS method to include testing of recently released antibiotics and is modified, where necessary, to enhance the demonstration of newly detected mechanisms of resistance.

The CDS method is updated regularly and the updates are published as the CDS Manual. The printed Manual is now in its 9th edition and it can be downloaded from this site.

Regular updates are published in newsletters, which are distributed to all registrants. (There is no charge for registering)

Workshops are held each year at the annual conference of the Australian Society of Microbiology. Although based in Australia, the CDS now has members throughout the world.

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