RAPID DETECTION OF BRUCELLA-MELITENSIS FROM BLOOD CULTURES BY A COMMERCIAL SYSTEM

To assess the capability of the Peds Plus medium of the Bactec 9240 bl ood culture system to recover Brucella melitensis within the routine s even-day protocol used by most clinical microbiology laboratories, ino culated blood culture bottles were monitored by the Bactec 9240 instru ment for four weeks, and blind subcultures were performed once a week. A total of 2579 blood cultures were drawn, 42 (1.6%) of which were po sitive for Brucella melitensis, Forty-one of the 42 (97.6%) positive c ultures were detected by the Bactec 9240 instrument within two to six days; a single positive culture was missed by the instrument and detec ted by blind subculture performed on day 7.