TABLE 1.

Characteristics of the 16 polymicrobial suspensions tested in the manual and automated inoculation and streaking

Suspension no.	No. of strains	Initial suspension concn (CFU/ml) fora:
		S. agalactiae	P. aeruginosa	S. aureus	E. coli
1	2	105	105
2	2	103	105
3	2	107	105
4	2	104	107
5	3	105	105	105
6	3	103	105	105
7	3	105	103	107
8	3	107	105	103
9	3	104	105	106
10	3	106	104	105
11	3	105	106	105
12	4	105	105	105	105
13	4	107	106	105	104
14	4	106	107	104	105
15	4	105	104	106	107
16	4	104	105	105	106

^aSuspensions were mixed volume to volume, i.e., 1:1, 1:1:1, and 1:1:1:1, to produce final suspensions of two, three, and four species, respectively.