title: Methods for enhanced culture recovery of Francisella tularensis.
abstract: 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%.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Jeannine M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Martin E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Schriefer
authors.forename: Kenneth L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Gage
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Montenieri
authors.forename: Leon G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Miles
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: May C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Chu
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media