VTS (Clinical Pathology): Academy of Veterinary Clinical Pathology Technicians

NAVTA describes AVCPT as advancing the area of and promoting excellence in the discipline of veterinary clinical pathology.

AVCPT's own pages say the veterinary technician specialist in Clinical Pathology will demonstrate superior knowledge and performance of clinical pathology techniques, promoting improved client service and enhanced patient care.

In practice this is the credential for a technician whose working day is the laboratory: running, checking and reporting the tests a case depends on.

The application is built around the core disciplines — the three case reports must carry major emphases on hematology, serum clinical chemistry and urinalysis — so your caseload needs to reach all of them.

AVCPT's floor is a minimum of three years and 4,000 hours of work experience in clinical pathology, and applicants must already be a graduate of an AVMA-accredited veterinary technology program, credentialed to practice as a veterinary technician in a state, province, or country — or show a passing VTNE score where no credentialing exists.

The planning detail is the window: the same requirements state that all experience and continuing education must be completed within six years prior to the application.

Three of your last six years, in other words, need to be clinical pathology years, so map your most recent work history against the 4,000-hour floor before you commit to an application cycle.

The packet is assembled from your own laboratory work.

AVCPT's CBC case log requires a minimum of 50 entries, and no more than 75.

The case reports are three, any species, from three different clinically abnormal patients — Case One with a major emphasis on hematology, Case Two on serum clinical chemistry, Case Three on urinalysis — so each report needs its own patient and its own discipline.

On the skills list, candidates must demonstrate mastery of 100% of the listed core skills plus 25 individual skills of their choice from the supplemental skills list.

You also need 40 CE clock hours related to veterinary clinical pathology with proof of attendance, and two letters of recommendation from two different categories — the acceptable writers include an AVCPT member, a supporting veterinarian and a VTS in any NAVTA approved specialty.

Preparation has a defined shape: AVCPT publishes a Knowledge Topic List as an aid in preparing to sit the AVCPT examination.

The exam itself is not described in detail on the pages read for this page — no question count or format is published.

Cost is the other documented piece: the cost varies with the location and costs associated with administering the exam, the fees are split into two payments — an application fee and an examination fee — and AVCPT asks candidates to email for current information.

On keeping the credential: the pages read for this page publish no recertification requirement, so treat that as a question to ask AVCPT directly rather than an assumption that the credential, once granted, runs on its own.

AVCPT's candidate packet materials, read on September 23, 2026, give January 15, 2027 as the next application deadline, with the complete application — Part 1 and Part 2 — due by that date.

That date belongs to the 2027 cycle.

Check AVCPT's own pages for the date that applies to your cycle before you plan your case-log year around it.