Methods for enhanced culture recovery of Francisella tularensis.
Francisella tularensis is found in a wide variety of hosts and extrahost environments, making culture recovery a diagnostic challenge. Here we demonstrate improved recovery times and good sensitivity (90%) when cultures were inoculated on the site of an investigation using fresh tissues. For contaminated specimens, antibiotic supplementation of enriched cysteine heart agar blood culture medium improved recovery of F. tularensis by 81.1%. For transport of tissues, immediate freezing yielded culture recovery rates as high as 94%.
Petersen
Jeannine M
JM
Diagnostic and Reference Section, Bacterial Zoonoses Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522 , USA. nzp0@cdc.gov
Schriefer
Martin E
ME
Gage
Kenneth L
KL
Montenieri
John A
JA
Carter
Leon G
LG
Stanley
Miles
M
Chu
May C
MC
D000818:Animals; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D003470:Culture Media; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005604:Francisella tularensis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D012589:Sciuridae / Q000382:microbiology*; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods*; D014406:Tularemia / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*
D003470:Culture Media