Microbiology company Lab M is a longstanding supplier of culture media for water testing, and has further strengthened its capabilities with the recent appointment of Operations Manager Tim Down, a microbiologist who has worked in the water industry for many years. Now responsible for all the operational aspects of Lab M's business at the company's headquarters in Heywood, Greater Manchester, UK, Tim brings both laboratory and operations management experience gained in a variety of commercial environments, but has spent much of his career in water and environmental sectors.

Lab M's water testing portfolio includes culture media that range from products for the estimation of overall numbers of culturable micro-organisms, right through to the highly sensitive detection of faecal contamination and the specific isolation of Legionella pneumophila in storage tanks and cooling systems. Water Plate Count Agar (ISO) and Yeast Extract Agar, for example, deliver the total viable counts needed when monitoring ground water integrity, water treatment processes and water supplies for food and beverage preparation, while R2A Medium fulfils the same function for heterotrophic bacteria.

Early alerts of faecal contamination in water rely on the sensitive detection of coliform organisms primarily, and also enterococci, which are commonly used as indicator organisms. Lab M's Harlequin™ mLGA chromogenic medium and Membrane Lauryl Sulphate Broth enable the highly sensitive detection of coliforms, while Slanetz & Bartley medium is used for the presumptive enumeration of enterococci using a membrane filtration technique (as described in ISO 7899-2:2000).

For Legionella detection, BCYE Legionella Medium is described in internationally recognised methodology (ISO 11731:1998) for the isolation of Legionella spp. from water. Lab M's selective supplement GVPC aids the specific isolation of Legionella pneumophila.

Further information can be found at: www.labm.com/dehydrated-culture-media