Observation on the employment of Chromocult Coliform Agar by pouring inoculation for the detection of E-coli in mussels

The chromogenic selective medium Merck Chromocult Coliform Agar can be empl oyed by pouring plate technique for the analysis of E. coli in mussels. The mussel homogenate, that is very dark, can be included until 4-6% in the me dium. The immersed blue colonies are sufficiently detectable, even if less clearly in comparison with their surface growth. A preliminary comparation between MPN and poured or surface inoculated plate techniques, shows simila r results and high correlation among the assessment of E. coli by the diffe rent methods. In particular the category determination appears the same for all methods except for border-line samples. The employment of pouring plat e techniques allows a remarkable saving of material and time in comparison of MPN and surface plate methods. For this reason the favourable results of this short note suggest further study to confirme and validate this techni que.