ORIGINAL ARTICLE How is post-mortem microbiology appraised by pathologists? Results from a practice survey conducted by ESGFOR V. Saegeman 1,2 & M. C. Cohen 3 & J. Alberola 4 & N. Ziyade 5 & C. Farina 6 & ESCMID Study Group for Forensic and Postmortem Microbiology & G. Cornaglia 7 & A. Fernández-Rodríguez 8 Received: 23 December 2016 /Accepted: 13 February 2017 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract Post-mortem microbiology (PMM) is an important tool in forensic pathology, assisting to determine the cause and manner of death. However, there is a lack of standardisation of PMM sampling. In order to get a better insight into the methods used, the available technical options and developmental needs, ESCMID Study Group for Forensic and Postmortem Microbiology (ESGFOR) members designed a survey aimed at pathologists regarding common practices of PMM in clinical and forensic autopsies. Multiple choice questions were developed based on Cumulative Techniques and Procedures in Clinical Microbiology (Cumitech). The questionnaire was sent to pathologists main- ly across Europe and Turkey using SurveyMonkey. The sur- vey had 147 respondents. Although all pathologists were aware of the existence of PMM, 39% (19/49) of the partici- pants were not using it. The three main indications for PMM were: (i) clinical suspicion of an infection not confirmed an- temortem (83%), (ii) infectious signs at autopsy (83%) and (iii) as part of a standard protocol for foetal/perinatal or pae- diatric death (67%). Almost 80% of the participants using PMM stated taking 1–10 samples per case. Of the requested examinations, a general bacteriological culture (96%) and a specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for a partic- ular infectious agent (34%) were most popular. The most frequent samples were: heart blood (66%), peripheral femoral blood (49%), spleen (64%) and lung (56%). Eighty-nine per- cent of the participants considered PMM a useful resource when investigating the cause of death. Although there are ESCMID Study Group for Forensic and Postmortem Microbiology (ESGFOR) members: Wafa Achour, Laurent Andréoletti, Ana Arribi, Alda Bazaj, Neval Elgormüs, Inés González, Aysel Karatas, Fernando Lázaro Perona, Stephen L. Leib, Miguel J. Martinez-Yoldi, Irene Merino, Catherine Moore, Jacob Moran-Gilad, Mario Poljak, Katja Seme, An Tamsin, Wouter Van Den Bogaert, Gülhan Yagmur, Ovidiu Mircea Zlatian. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10096-017-2943-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * V. Saegeman Veroniek.saegeman@uzleuven.be 1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 2 Laboratory Medicine, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium 3 Histopathology Department, Sheffield Children’ s NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK 4 Microbiology Service, University Hospital Dr. Peset Valencia, School of Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain 5 Postmortem Mikrobiyoloji Laboratuvarı, Adalet Bakanlığı Adli Tıp Kurumu, Bahçelievler/İstanbul, Turkey 6 Microbiology Institute, ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy 7 Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, Verona, Italy 8 Microbiology Laboratory, Biology Department, Instituto Nacional de Toxicología y Ciencias Forenses, Las Rozas de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis DOI 10.1007/s10096-017-2943-6