Don Whitley Scientific is celebrating production of the 1,000th Whitley Automated Spiral Plater (WASP), a proven system for standardised enumeration of micro-organisms. The company's founder, Don Whitley, introduced spiral plating to the UK in the 1970s and the method is now regarded as the de facto standard for plate counts. Launched in 1993 and improved continuously ever since, the WASP has proven to be a best seller for the company and is routinely used in microbiology laboratories worldwide.

WASP helps to simplify manual and automatic counting of spiral plates since an exact sample volume is applied to each plate in a standardised pattern. Furthermore, incubation space requirements are significantly reduced as only one third of the plates used in conventional methods are required. For improved functionality Don Whitley Scientific has developed a self-adjusting turntable to ensure the WASP can accommodate a variety of plate sizes.

Paul Walton, managing director of Don Whitley Scientific, commented: 'My father, Don Whitley, was the first to bring spiral plating technology to the UK from the USA. In order to meet our customer's changing needs we have made continual improvements to the WASP. The production of the 1000th system highlights its success with laboratories worldwide.'

The 1000th Whitley Automated Spiral Plater was purchased by Herr Bernd Traupe of Beiersdorf in Hamburg, Germany (see photograph).