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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 1999, p. 766-768, Vol. 37, No. 3
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

ABC Medium, a New Chromogenic Agar for Selective Isolation of Salmonella spp.

John D. Perry,1,* Michael Ford,1 Jeffrey Taylor,2 Amanda L. Jones,1 Roger Freeman,2 and Frances K. Gould1

Department of Microbiology, Freeman Hospital,1 and Regional Public Health Laboratory,2 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom

Received 31 July 1998/Returned for modification 31 October 1998/Accepted 21 November 1998

We describe a new chromogenic agar medium, ABC medium (alpha beta -chromogenic medium), which includes two substrates, 3,4-cyclohexenoesculetin-beta -D-galactoside and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-alpha -D-galactopyranoside, to facilitate the selective isolation of Salmonella spp. This medium exploits the fact that Salmonella spp. may be distinguished from other members of the family Enterobacteriaceae by the presence of alpha -galactosidase activity in the absence of beta -galactosidase activity. A total of 1,022 strains of Salmonella spp. and 300 other gram-negative strains were inoculated onto this medium. Of these, 1,019 (99.7%) strains of Salmonella spp. produced a characteristic green colony, whereas only 1 strain (0.33%) of non-Salmonella produced a green colony. A total of 283 stool samples were cultured onto desoxycholate citrate (DC) agar and ABC medium by direct inoculation and after selective enrichment in selenite broth. Overall, the sensitivity and specificity were superior for ABC medium (100 and 90.5%, respectively) than for DC agar (88 and 26.9%, respectively). We conclude that ABC medium offers a high degree of specificity for the detection of Salmonella spp. in stool samples.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Freeman Hospital, Freeman Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE7 7DN, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 (191) 2843111. Fax: 44 (191) 2231226. E-mail:homeresearch{at}compuserve.com.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 1999, p. 766-768, Vol. 37, No. 3
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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