Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012
Dispatch
Culturing Stool Specimens for Campylobacter spp., Pennsylvania, USA
Nkuchia M. M’ikanatha, Lisa A. Dettinger, Amanda Perry, Paul Rogers, Stanley M. Reynolds, and Irving Nachamkin
Table 1
General laboratory practices for 107 Pennsylvania laboratories performing testing of stool specimens, 2009*
| Laboratory practice/method | No. (%) laboratories |
|---|---|
| Routine stool culture includes the following pathogens | |
| Salmonella spp. | 107 (100) |
| Shigella spp. | 107 (100) |
| Campylobacter spp. | 104 (97.2) |
| Aeromonas spp. | 62 (57.9) |
| Plesiomonas spp. | 59 (55.1) |
| Vibrio spp. | 24 (22.2) |
| Yersinia spp. | 38 (35.5) |
| Escherichia coli O157 and STEC stool testing | |
| Routine E. coli O157culture | 44 (41.1) |
| Culture plus Shiga toxin antigen testing | 17 (15.8) |
| Special request E. coli O157 culture | 47 (43.9) |
| Special request Shiga-toxin antigen | 52 (48.6) |
| Special request stool culture for the following pathogens | |
| Aeromonas spp. | 35 (32.7) |
| Plesiomonas spp. | 34 (31.8) |
| Vibrio spp. | 75 (70.0) |
| Yersinia spp. | 65 (60.7) |
| Fecal white cell analysis | 99 (92.5) |
| Transport medium† | 47 (43.9) |
| Medium used | |
| Cary-Blair | 41 (87.0) |
| Not specified | 6 (13.0) |
| No medium used | 59 (55.1) |
| No response | 1 (<1.0) |
| Average time to plating stool specimen after receipt, h | |
| <4 | 81 (75.7) |
| 4–8 | 23 (21.5) |
| >8 | 3 (2.8) |
*STEC, Shiga toxin–producing E. coli.
†Laboratories received specimens in transport media >75% of the time.
