Eda Hida1, Xhevahire Muçaj1, Blerta Kika Brati1
1Institute of Public Health, Tirana, Albania.
Culture media remains the commonplace in any microbiological laboratory. Culture Media Preparation Laboratoryassignment is supportive and crucial for National Reference Laboratories at IPH, to achieve optimal and reliable results on the microbiological diagnosis as well as on research purposes.
Culture media were prepared following national protocols and specific standard procedures, checking different parameters such as growth, gel strength, contamination, pH, etc., to ensure a high standard quality and fulfilling the requirements of all diagnostics laboratories.
During the period of time January 2018 – December 2019, a total of 38 different types of culture media were produced. They were classified as transport medium (Cary Blair), general/differential/selective medium (predominantly Blood-Agar, ECD Mug, Slanetz and Bartley, Mac Conkey, Muller-Hinton, etc.), strains conservation’s medium (Glycerol and Lab-Lemco). (See Chart No. 1).
Major part of our laboratory’s activity was covered by Culture media for the isolation and identification of Enterobacteriaceae (41%) and microbiological water analysis ones (18%).
The important role of culture media on diagnosis of Gastrointestinal and waterborne outbreaks or researches for pollution of bathing water leads to close cooperation and coordination between laboratories to obtain high results.
Keywords: culture media, diagnosis, epidemic outbreaks, research purposes.