Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Standard Nutrient Agar 1 as a substitute for blood-supplemented Müller–Hinton agar for antibiograms in developing countries

  • Article
  • Published:
European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 14 December 2012

Abstract

In the industrial world, the agar diffusion test is a standard procedure for the susceptibility testing of bacteria isolates. Beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. are tested with Müller–Hinton agar supplemented with 5 % blood, a so-called blood agar. The results are interpreted using standardized tables, which only exist for this type of nutrient matrix. Because of a number difficulties, both with respect to technical issues and to manual skills, blood agar is not a feasible option in many developing countries. Beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. also grow on Standard Nutrient Agar 1 (StNA1). This suggests using that type of nutrient medium for running agar diffusion tests. However, there are no standardized tables that can be used for interpreting the diameters of the zones of inhibition on StNA1 1. Using the existing standardized tables for blood agar to interpret cultures on StNA1 1 would be of great benefit under such circumstances where blood agar is not available. With this in mind, we conducted comparative tests to evaluate the growth characteristics of beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. on StNA1 1 compared to Müller–Hinton agar supplemented with 5 % sheep blood. In this study, we were able to show that beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. develop similar zones of inhibition on blood agar and on StNA1 1. Therefore, it is suggested that, for the interpretation of antibiograms of beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. performed on StNA1 1, the standard tables for blood agar can be used.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. CIP is not recommended for treating beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp., but in this study, we analyzed and compared the growth behavior of these bacteria, not their resistances. For this reason, we decided to check also an antibiotic not common for treating beta-hemolytic Streptococcus spp.

References

  1. bioMérieux (2002) Product data sheet: 11378 A – DE – 2002/07. Columbia Agar + 5 % Hammelblut (COS) – REF 43041/43049

  2. bioMérieux (2004) Product data sheet: 11677 B – DE – 2004/05. Mueller Hinton Agar + 5 % Schafblut (MHS) – REF 43321/43329

  3. Carl Roth GmbH + Co. KG (2011) Product data sheet: Standard Nutrient Agar 1 (s.s. 11/2011). http://www.carlroth.com/media/_de-de/usage/AE93.pdf

  4. European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) (2009) Antimicrobial susceptibility testing. EUCAST disk diffusion method. Version 1.0, December 18, 2009. http://www.eucast.org/fileadmin/src/media/PDFs/EUCAST_files/Disk_test_documents/Disk_method_description_v1.0.pdf

  5. Jorgensen JH, Swenson JM, Tenover FC, Ferraro MJ, Hindler JA, Murray PR (1994) Development of interpretive criteria and quality control limits for broth microdilution and disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Clin Microbiol 32(10):2448–2459

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Korgenski EK, Daly JA (1998) Evaluation of the BIOMIC video reader system for determining interpretive categories of isolates on the basis of disk diffusion susceptibility results. J Clin Microbiol 36(1):302–304

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Muhammad G, Hoblet KH, Bech-Nielsen S, Jackwood DL, Smith KL (1998) Reproducibility of antibiogram of bovine mammary gland staphylococci under conditions of repeated subculturing. Zentralbl Veterinarmed B 45(3):189–192

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Russell FM, Biribo SSN, Selvaraj G, Oppedisano F, Warren S, Seduadua A, Mulholland EK, Carapetis JR (2006) As a bacterial culture medium, citrated sheep blood agar is a practical alternative to citrated human blood agar in laboratories of developing countries. J Clin Microbiol 44(9):3346–3351

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Thorvilson J, Kohner P, Henry N, Cockerill F 3rd (1997) Comparison of agar dilution, broth dilution, disk diffusion, and the E-test for susceptibility testing of penicillin-susceptible and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 16(5):391–394

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital St. John of God, Mabesseneh-Lunsar, Sierra Leone

    N. Niederstebruch & D. Sixt

  2. Globolab e.V. Laboratory, Asslinger Str. 52, 85617, Assling, Germany

    N. Niederstebruch & D. Sixt

Authors
  1. N. Niederstebruch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. Sixt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to N. Niederstebruch.

Electronic supplementary material

Below are the links to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(PDF 765 kb)

ESM 2

(PDF 881 kb)

ESM 3

(PDF 135 kb)

ESM 4

(PDF 249 kb)

ESM 5

(PDF 1515 kb)

ESM 6

(PDF 151 kb)

ESM 7

(PDF 275 kb)

ESM 8

(PDF 377 kb)

ESM 9

(PDF 392 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Niederstebruch, N., Sixt, D. Standard Nutrient Agar 1 as a substitute for blood-supplemented Müller–Hinton agar for antibiograms in developing countries. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 32, 237–241 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-012-1735-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-012-1735-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation