A cooked meat blood culture medium; shelf-life and clinical evaluation compared with other systems

Abstract

The recovery of anaerobic bacteria from small inocula was examined in an in vitro simulated blood culture system. A freshly prepared cooked meat medium gave the best results while Difco Thiol medium and a commercially available cooked meat medium gave good recovery; Brewer's thioglycollate medium was unsatisfactory. Those media tested performed less well after storage. However, stored Difco Thiol medium and laboratory prepared cooked meat media could be revitalised by steaming, and restored to full efficacy. In a clinical trial of blood culture media, freshly prepared cooked meat medium was compared with an established two-bottle system of Brewer's thioglycollate and Brain Heart Infusion media. The inclusion of freshly prepared cooked meat medium increased the percentage of positive blood cultures from 10·1 to 11·8 per cent. Eighty six per cent of positive cultures could have been detected by our previous technique; 98 per cent could be isolated by our adoption of a freshly prepared cooked meat medium with Brain Heart Infusion Broth.