Burkholderia pseudomallei ,the causative agent of melioidosis, can be recovered from a variety of clinical samples. A major determinant related to poor disease outcomes is delay to diagnosis due to the fact that identification of the causative agent may be challenging. Microscopy may show bipolar or unevenly stained gram-negative bacilli. Isolation rates from sites with a normal flora (throat swabs, sputum, superficial wound swabs, etc.) may be increased by the use of selective media. Simple screening tests such as oxidase positivity, resistance to gentamicin and susceptibility to Amoxycillin-clavulanate are useful in the preliminary identification of this organism. While confirmation has been previously done using biochemical tests such as those in the API 20NE or Vitek 2, an increasing number of laboratories are using the MALDI-TOF (Vitek MS or Bruker) as the sole method of organism identification. B.pseudomallei is not found in the standard databases of these instruments and the sole use of the MALDI-TOF can lead to misidentification of this organism unless the database is modified. Molecular diagnostic techniques have been trialled directly on clinical samples, with varying results. Both EUCAST and CLSI have breakpoints to commonly used antibiotics. In addition,EUCAST now has disc diffusion zones of inhibition. The laboratory handling of this organism has biosafety implications, although laboratory acquired infections are rare. Staff need to be aware of these and clinicians are encouraged to liaise with the laboratory to discuss the processing of samples from patients returning from endemic areas.