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. 1981 Mar;13(3):526–531. doi: 10.1128/jcm.13.3.526-531.1981

Selective medium for isolation of Clostridium botulinum from human feces.

M Dezfulian, L M McCroskey, C L Hatheway, V R Dowell Jr
PMCID: PMC273826  PMID: 7016901

Abstract

A selective medium, Clostridium botulinum isolation (CBI) agar, was developed for the isolation of C. botulinum from human feces. This medium contains cycloserine (250 microgram/ml), sulfamethoxazole (76 microgram/ml), and trimethoprim (4 microgram/ml) as selective inhibitory agents. Qualitative tests indicated complete recovery of C. botulinum types A, B, F, and G on CBI medium. It was more difficult to recognize type G colonies on the medium because of their lack of lipase activity. Except for a few species of Clostridium, the growth of other obligate anaerobes and of the facultative anaerobes tested on CBI medium was suppressed. Quantitative studies of C. botulinum on the selective medium yielded counts comparable to those obtained on egg yolk agar control plates. Isolation of C. botulinum types A, B, and F from seeded fecal specimens was easily achieved with CBI medium. The use of CBI agar should aid the rapid isolation of C. botulinum from fecal specimens associated with foodborne and infant botulism.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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