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 2
Campylobacter-specific laboratory practices for 107 Pennsylvania laboratories performing testing of stool specimens, 2009*
| Laboratory practice/method | No. (%) laboratories |
|---|---|
| Included in routine testing | 104 (97.2) |
| Special request culture | 1 (0.9) |
| Culture plus antigen testing | 1 (0.9) |
| Perform culture on positive antigen assay | 2 (1.9) |
| Campylobacter antigen testing only | 17 (15.8) |
| Culture broth enrichment usage | |
| Yes (9 Campy-Thio, 1 GNB, 4 unspecified) | 14 (13.1) |
| No | 89 (83.2) |
| No response | 4 (3.7) |
| Length of Incubation, h | |
| 24 | 1 (<1) |
| 48 | 64 (59.8) |
| 72 | 33 (30.8) |
| No response | 9 (8.4) |
| Type of medium used for Campylobacter culture | |
| Campy-BAP | 65 (60.7) |
| CVA | 30 (27.8) |
| Skirrow | 2 (1.9) |
| CSM | 2 (1.8) |
| CCDA or mCCDA | 0 |
| Not specified or not cultured | 8 (7.5) |
| Temperature used for culture, °C | |
| 37 | 3 (2.8) |
| 42 | 96 (89.7) |
| Not specified | 8 (7.5) |
| Atmosphere used for culture | |
| Microaerobic, 5% O2 | 96 (89.7) |
| 10% CO2 | 1 (0.9) |
| Both | 1(0.9) |
| Not specified | 9 (8.4) |
| Tests used for identification of Campylobacter spp. | |
| Gram stain | 96 (89.7) |
| Oxidase | 92 (86) |
| Catalase | 70 (65.4) |
| Hippurate hydrolysis | 51 (47.7) |
| Naladixic acid/cephalothin disk identification | 21 (19.6) |
| Indoxyl acetate | 7 (6.5) |
| Send to a reference laboratory | 6 (5.6) |
| Other, not specified | 33 (30.8) |
| Performs susceptibility testing | 4 (3.7) |
*Campy-Thio, Campylobacter thioglycollate broth; GNB, gram-negative broth; Campy-BAP, Campylobacter blood agar plates; CVA, cefoperazone-vancomycin-amphotericin; CSM, charcoal-based selective medium; CCDA, charcoal-cefoperazone-deoxycholate agar; mCCDA, modified CCDA.
