title: Comparison of commercially available media for the recovery of Legionella species.
abstract: A lack of standardization of environmental monitoring techniques for Legionella spp. complicates the interpretation and comparison of results from different institutions. Since the quality of the culture media has enormous effect on the recovery of Legionella spp. a comparative assessment of commercially available media from four manufactures (Becton Dickenson, BioMerieux, Heipha, and Oxoid) was performed. For this, samples containing infected Acanthamoeba castellanii cells, samples from the External Quality Assurance Scheme (EQA) run by the Health Protection Agency in London and water samples from a hospital in Dresden, Germany, were investigated. The glycine-containing media (GVPC) from four manufactures were equally effective in growing legionellae. However, this medium formulation inhibited some of the non-pneumophila strains tested which was not observed with the selective BMPA and non-selective BCYE-agar.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, TU Dresden, Germany. Christian.Lueck@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
authors.forename: Paul Christian
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Lück
authors.forename: Liane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Igel
authors.forename: Jürgen Herbert
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Helbig
authors.forename: Eberhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kuhlisch
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jatzwauk
mesh_terms: D002606:Charcoal; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003470:Culture Media; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005998:Glycine; D006761:Hospitals; D007875:Legionella / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014881:Water Supply; D015003:Yeasts
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D002606:Charcoal; D005998:Glycine