Anaerobic Bacteriology

Anaerobic Culture Media

June 2012

Once the specimen has reached the laboratory, it should be inoculated on fresh enriched, selective, and differential agar plates.  Examples are Brucella or CDC Blood Agar, Laked Blood Agar containing Kanamycin and Vancomycin or LKV, bile-esculin agar, phenylethyl alcohol agar or PEA, and thioglycollate broth tubes.  So called PRAS media that is pre-reduced anaerobically sterilized may be utilized but it is quite expensive and cumbersome to use and generally not necessary for the clinical laboratory.  Inoculated plates are then placed in a holding jar until that jar is full and ready to be set up as an anaerobic jar or for use in an anaerobic chamber glove box.  Initial incubation is for forty eight hours before the plates undergo examination.  Plates should also be checked for new growth for up to seven days and thioglycolate broth tubes should be kept for a total of fourteen days especially if one suspects infection of the total joint arthroplasty.

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Anaerobic Culture Media

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Jump to section:

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Anaerobic Bacteria
• Principal Anaerobic Pathogens
• Specimen Selection: Avoid Contamination With Normal Flora
• Inappropriate Specimens
• Collection and Transport
• Anaerobic Transport Vials
• Anaerobic Transporters
• Anaerobic Culture Media
• Primary Culture CO₂ Holding Jar with Flow Meter
• Incubation
• Anaerobic Jars Set Up Using the Anaero-Pack
• Anaerobic Glove Box
• Anaerobe Culture Triage
• Anaerobe Culture Triage (cont.)
• Identification
• Colonial Morphology
• Pigmented Colonies
• Rapid Identification Using Gram Stain
• Identification
• 16S Ribosomal RNA Sequence of Bacteroides fragilis
• Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing
• AST Methods
• Illustration of the Components of the E-test Method
• Susceptibility Testing by E-test
• Anaerobe Antimicrobial Panels
• References
• Special Thanks
• Questions