Concentrating on Campylobacter

A leading cause of food-borne illness, Campylobacter has been much in the news this year, not least being the focus for the UK's Food Safety Week in June, and also the subject of an international conference hosted by the country's Food Standards Agency in July.

In the fight against food-borne illness, microbiological culture plays an important role in monitoring the occurrence of the causative organisms. To this end, Lab M produces a range of Campylobacter media that supports the development of the necessary isolation and identification strategies. These media are designed to isolate the main pathogens responsible for Campylobacter enteritis.

Lab M's Campylobacter Enrichment Broth, which uses the Bolton formulation, enhances recovery of sub-lethally damaged organisms, providing an effective enriched broth for sub-culture onto media such as Campylobacter Blood Free Selective Medium. Selective at 37 degrees Celsius for C. jejuni, C. coli and also C. laridis, Campylobacter Blood Free Selective Medium is an improved version of CCDA (charcoal-cefoperazone-deoxycholate agar). While other supplements have been shown to contain antibiotics that may be inhibitory to C. coli, the one used here consists only of cefoperazone and amphotericin.

For further details visit www.labm.com