INTRODUCTION Sputum samples collected at a teaching hospital of Jodhpur, were processed at Desert Medicine Research Centre, Jodhpur. The aim was to assess the time required for primary isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) on locally prepared sheep blood agar slants as compared to Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. METHODS Equal volume of homogeneous inoculums prepared from smear positive...

Blood agar, prepared with Trypticase (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, Md.) soy agar and 5% defibrinated bovine blood, is used for testing the potency of live Pasteurella multocida and Pasteurella haemolytica vaccines, but its potential for variation makes it undesirable to use in a standard assay method. Tests done with RPMI 1640 and Trypticase soy medium indicated that the benefits obt...

To enhance understanding of how Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus, GBS) adapts during invasive infection, we performed a whole-genome transcriptome analysis after incubation with whole human blood. Global changes occurred in the GBS transcriptome rapidly in response to blood contact following shift from growth in a rich laboratory medium. Most (83%) of the significantly altered tr...

The efficiency of four culture media was compared for the isolation of Mycobacterium avium complex from 197 procine tissues. In 82 tissues with microscopic granulomas and acid-fast bacilli, a significantly greater number of isolates were obtained on Middlebrook 7H10 medium with sodium pyruvate than on Stonebrink medium, Herrold egg yolk agar medium, or Lowenstein-Jensen medium (P=0.01). In 46 t...

Non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains are clinically important foodborne pathogens. Unlike E. coli O157:H7, these foodborne pathogens have no unique biochemical characteristics to readily distinguish them from other E. coli strains growing on plating media. In this study, a chromogenic agar medium was developed in order to differentiate among non-O157 STEC strains of s...

A semisolid urea-motility-indole medium designed for detection in Enterobacteriaceae of urease activity, motility, and indole production in one tube was prepared and evaluated. The formulation of the medium was similar to that of Christensen urea agar, but the agar concentration was 0.2%, and 1% tryptone was added. Results with 687 strains of Enterobacteriaceae were the same as those obtained w...

Group B streptococcus (GBS; Streptococcus agalactiae) is a leading cause of neonatal invasive infections, and until recently, it was thought to be completely susceptible to penicillin. However, we recently identified several clinical GBS isolates with reduced penicillin susceptibility (PRGBS) whose minimum inhibitory concentrations of penicillin were >0.12 μg/ml, which is above the susceptibili...

It has been difficult to cultivate human tubercle bacilli in agar medium unless bovine serum, or a fraction therefrom, was added aseptically, since the factor present in the serum is thermolabile (Dubos and Middlebrook, 1947). On the other hand, egg yolk or whole egg media may be used, but the difficulties in preparing the media render the methods uncertain and cumbersome. Hence, a thermostable...

A simple gel immunodiffusion agar procedure was developed for detecting toxigenic strains of Clostridium botulinum type A. The method consisted of overlaying colonies grown on thin-layer tryptone-peptone-glucose-yeast extract agar with gel diffusion agar containing desired levels of C. botulinum type A antitoxin. Concentric precipitin zones formed around colonies of C. botulinum type A. Strains...

A method of recovering sublethally heat-injured bacteria was developed. The procedure (termed the agar underlay method) uses a nonselective agar underlaid with a selective medium. In a two-chambered petri dish, the Lutri plate (LP), a nonselective agar is inoculated with a population of sublethally heat-injured bacteria. After a 2-h repair incubation period, selective agar is added to the botto...