Abstract
Plain, buffered cotton-wool swabs and albumen-coated cotton-wool swabs were prepared with known numbers of the following: Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, corynebacteria and Escherichia coli. Swabs were plated immediately (0 hours) after loading with a 0.1 ml standardised inoculum; each swab was plated out four times by streaking on both halves of two plates. At 0 hours recovery rates from first platings on solid media ranged from 3.3%-8.9%; from platings 1-4 ranges were 2.5%-5.7%. Both types of swabs gave similar results. The greater the delay in plating swabs at room temperature and 4 degrees C the lower was the recovery rate of H. influenzae and Strep. pneumoniae, though both species survived better on either kind of swab when these were held at 4 degrees C. There was a very small reduction in numbers of Staph. aureus from 24 to 48 hours but the recovery rate of corynebacteria was similar over the 48-hour period, at both room temperature and 4 degrees C. Twenty-four-hour counts of E. coli at room temperature were approximately five times greater than at 0 hours, and at 48 hours colonies were too numerous to count. At 4 degrees C, however, counts of E. coli fell during the 48-hour period.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Bartlett D. I., Hughes M. H. Bacteriological swabs. Br Med J. 1969 Aug 23;3(5668):450–451. doi: 10.1136/bmj.3.5668.450. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- CRUICKSHANK R. Clinical pathology in general practice; taking swabs. Br Med J. 1953 Nov 14;2(4845):1095–1097. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.4845.1095. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Collee J. G., Watt B., Brown R., Johnstone S. The recovery of anaerobic bacteria from swabs. J Hyg (Lond) 1974 Jun;72(3):339–347. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400023561. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- HOLLINGER N. F., LINDBERG L. H. Delayed recovery of streptococci from throat swabs. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1958 Sep;48(9):1162–1169. doi: 10.2105/ajph.48.9.1162. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- RUBBO S. D., BENJAMIN M. Some observations on survival of pathogenic bacteria on cotton-wool swabs; development of a new type of swab. Br Med J. 1951 May 5;1(4713):983–987. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.4713.983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ross P. W. The isolation of Streptococcus pyogenes from throat swabs. J Med Microbiol. 1977 Feb;10(1):69–76. doi: 10.1099/00222615-10-1-69. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]