In article <548j8l$4dg at inet-1.pharmacia.se>, <user at upj.com> says:
>>>Recently, I discovered that both the United States Pharmacopia Compendia and the European Pharmacopia Compendia
>are proposing the use of Hektoen Enteric Agar instead of Brilliant Green Agar for Salmonella detection.
>I cannot determine the reason for this change because both agars seem to select for Salmonella sp. just as well.
>Does anyone have an explaination for this change?
>thanks,
>>Johnny Barone
>Pharmacia & Upjohn
>JMBarone at pwinet.upj.com
Since I don't do clincial micro I don't have a feel for all of the
potential issues here. I do know that the best course of action
is to always plate on several different media when you suspect
that salmonella might be present.
Each one has its own properties and quirks and limiting use to only
one of these (out of several other possibilities including
Rambach agar, bismuth sulfite agar) leaves one open to the possibility
of missing a postitive.
Both lactose fermentation and hydrogen sulfide might not be positive
in some instances. A variation on Brilliant green that is sometimes
useful is novobiocin glucose brilliant greeen.
As to the reasoning behind what you mentioned, changes in the Pharmacopia,
I've not any idea as that is outside my experience.
