ARS | Publication request: Media for the aerobic growth of campylobacter

Submitted to: Southern Poultry Science Society Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 16, 2012
Publication Date: January 28, 2013
Citation: Hinton Jr, A. 2013. Media for the aerobic growth of campylobacter. Southern Poultry Science Society Meeting Abstracts.

Technical Abstract: The effect of agar and sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) concentration on aerobic growth of Campylobacter in a fumarate-pyruvate medium was examined. The broth medium was supplemented with 0.0 to 0.2% agar and inoculated with 106 CFU/ml of Campylobacter coli 33559, Campylobacter fetus 27349, Campylobacter jejuni 33560, or Campylobacter jejuni 49349. Portions of the inoculated media were transferred to wells of a honeycomb plate and placed in a Bioscreen Microbiology Reader. Cultures were then incubated aerobically at 37C for 72 h, and culture optical density (OD) was measured at 600 nm. Next, fumarate-pyruvate media containing 0.15% agar was supplemented with 0.00 to 0.10% NaHCO3 and inoculated with Campylobacter. Cultures were incubated and growth was measured as previously described. Finally, experiments were conducted to determine the number of CFU of Campylobacter/ml recovered from media supplemented with 0.15% agar and 0.05 % NaHCO3, inoculated with 103 CFU/ml of Campylobacter spp., then incubated aerobically or microaerophilically for 72 h at 37C. After incubation, Campylobacter was enumerated by plating serial dilutions of inoculated media on Campylobacter selective agar and incubating microaerophilically at 42C for 48 h. Results of experiments indicated that the OD of cultures of all Campylobacter isolates was significantly higher when grown in fumarate-pyruvate broth media containing added agar. Furthermore, the addition of NaHCO3 to the medium supplemented with agar produced a significant increase in the OD of most of the isolates during early periods of growth. Also, after 72 of incubation there was a 5 to 6 log increase in the number of Campylobacter recovered from inoculated media containing 0.15% agar and 0.05% NaHCO3, and there was no significant difference in the number of CFU recovered from media incubated aerobically or microaerophilically. Findings from this study indicate that culturing Campylobacter in a fumarate-pyruvate broth medium supplemented with agar and NaHCO3 might provide an alternative to current procedures of incubating Campylobacter under microaerophilic conditions. Use of the medium could eliminate the additional expense and training required for growing Campylobacter in microaerophilic atmospheres.