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Chocolate Agar with 7% Horse Blood & Bacitacin A highly nutritious medium enriched with Horse Blood, where the blood has been ‘chocolated’ by heating the medium to 70°C. Suitable for the isolation of most pathogens including many fastidious organisms the addition of Bacitracin makes it is particularly suitable for the selective isolation of Haemophilus spp. -
DN'ase Medium DNase Agar is used primarily in clinical laboratories to differentiate Staphylococcus aureus from other Staphylococci based on deoxyribonuclease activity. Following incubation of the plate and confirmation of a pure growth of Staphylococci, the surface of the medium is covered with a small quantity of 1M Hydrochloric Acid to precipitate the DNA. Staphylococcus aureus produce DNase enzymes that hydrolyse DNA resulting in a clear area around the colonies, described as being DNase positive, whereas coagulase negative Staphylococci do not produce clearing. NB: As with most tests of this type a positive result should not be taken in isolation and other appropriate tests, e.g. Coagulase Test, Latex Agglutination etc, should be carried out. -
Mueller-Hinton Agar is a defined medium used primarily in Antimicrobial Sensitivity Testing using the disc diffusion technique described by Bauer-Kirby. It has been approved as the definitive medium for this purpose by the European Committee on Anitmicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST). This medium contains low levels of thymidine and thymine and controlled levels of calcium and magnesium ions. Additional supplementation of the Mueller Hinton medium using 5% Horse Blood and 20mg/L of Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) makes it suitable for use with the more fastidious organisms such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae.
