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Table 1 Target Organisms: Primary Diagnostic Methods.

From: Methods for determining disease burden and calibrating national surveillance data in the United Kingdom: the second study of infectious intestinal disease in the community (IID2 study)

Bacteria

Methods

Campylobacter jejuni/coli*

Direct plating - modified cefeoperazone, charcoal deoxycholate (CCD) agar.

Enrichment culture - Preston broth.

Clostridium perfringens (enterotoxin)

Techlab™ (Blacksburg, USA) enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), all positives to be cultured and isolates sent to the reference laboratory.

Clostridium difficile cytotoxin

Premier™ (Meridian Bioscience Inc., Cincinnati, OH) toxins A and B enzyme immunoassay (EIA)

Escherichia coli O157*

Direct plating on Cefixime Tellurite Sorbitol MacConkey agar.

Enrichment in Modified Tryptone Soya Broth with Novobiocin.

Listeria spp (monocytogenes)*

Direct plating - polymyxin acriflavine lithium chloride ceftazidime asculin mannitol (PALCAM) agar**

Salmonella spp*

Direct plating - Xylose Lysine Dextrose (XLD) Agar and Desoxycholate Citrate Agar (DCA).

Enrichment culture - Selenite F broth and Rappaport Vasilliades Salmonella enrichment broth.

Shigella spp*

Direct plating - XLD and DCA.

Yersinia spp*

Direct plating - Cefsulodin Irgasin Novobiocin (CIN) selective agar.

Enrichment culture - Tris Buffer Yersinia enrichment broth.

Protozoa

Cryptosporidium parvum

Techlab™ Giardia/Cryptosporidium check, r-biopharm™ RIDA™ Quick Cryptosporidium

Giardia intestinalis

Techlab™ Giardia/Cryptosporidium check, r-biopharm™ RIDA™ Quick Giardia

Cyclospora

Modified Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain

Viruses

Enteric viruses

(Premier™ Rotaclone, Premier™ Adenoclone).

  1. * All positive isolates were sent to the relevant reference laboratory.
  2. ** PALCAM agar was used in previous studies [32, 33]
  3. Notes:
  4. 1. If the clinical information indicated a history of foreign travel then specimens were tested for Vibrio spp (Direct plating using Thiosulphate Citrate Bile Sucrose (TCBS) agar and alkaline peptone water (APW) enrichment) and ova, parasites and cysts (Direct and concentration microscopy)
  5. 2. If the specimen was related to an outbreak investigation then it was tested for other pathogens e.g. Staphylococcus aureus (Direct plating MSA), Bacillus spp. (direct plating Bacillus cereus agar - MEYP).
  6. 3. Specimens from children < 5 years old were examined for Rotavirus and Adenovirus 40,41 by immunoassay (Premier™ Rotaclone, Premier™ Adenoclone).
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BMC Medical Research Methodology

ISSN: 1471-2288

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