Table 1.

Bacteria cultured from samples collected before and after skin disinfection

	Depilatory cream		Shaving
	Before	After	Before	After
Staphylococcus xylosus	7	3	10	3
Bacillus spp.	0	0	0	2
Enterococcus gallinarium	1	0	1	0
Neisseria spp.	1	0	0	0
No growth	2	7	0	6

Data represent the number of plates on which each bacterial genus grew; some plates grew multiple bacterial species. Each mouse (n = 20) provided a ‘before’ (after hair removal but before surgical scrubbing) and ‘after’ (after scrubbing) sample. Each culture was incubated at 37 °C for 18 h; additional incubation and bacterial identification occurred at the University of Georgia–Athens.