Research Note: A comparison of media for the recovery of Campylobacter spp. from long term storage at -80° C

Abstract

Pure cultures of Campylobacter spp. can be stored at -80°C for extended periods, however they eventually lose viability. To maintain cultures regular resuscitation and subculturing of strains needs to be undertaken but this requires that staff and media are available for this purpose. Financial pressures on many institutes have had the consequence that regular sub-culturing has become a financial burden. Accordingly this study was undertaken to compare the ability of inexpensive media to recover campylobacters from storage of up to 12 years at -80°C. Brain heart infusion agar and modified charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar base were compared with blood agar. Overall, blood agar was found to be the best medium for this purpose and is to be recommended.