Automated counting of bacterial colonies by image analysis

Abstract

Colony counting is some of the most basic and frequent operations in colony cultivating trials and is both basic and important in agriculture, foods, medical analysis. Currently, people adopt the national standard detection technique to count colonies. When the sample is huge, the method becomes difficult and time-consuming. It is necessary to enhance the traditional counting method with the advancement of computer technology. We, therefore, implemented a colony counting system with a Biowizard Image Analysis Software to count the bacteria in the agar plates. The automatic colony counting program was user-friendly and did not require any specific hardware or extensive training. It only required a digital image of the agar plates with colonies in any image format. The Biowizard Image Analysis Software gave better information about colony parameters, with respect to sensitivity and time required, as compared to manual counting and other commercial software.Keywords:Colony counting, Microbiology, Biowizard, Analysis Software