Selective medium for isolation of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans

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Abstract
A selective medium, TSBV (tryptic soy-serum-bacitracin-vancomycin) agar, was developed for the isolation of A. actinomycetemcomitans. TSBV agar contained (per l) 40 g of tryptic soy agar, 1 g of yeast extract, 100 ml of horse serum, 75 mg of bacitracin and 5 mg of vancomycin. The TSBV medium suppressed most oral species and permitted significantly higher recovery of A. actinomycetemcomitans than nonselective blood agar medium. The distinct colonial morphology and positive catalase reaction of A. actinomycetemcomitans easily distinguished this bacterium from Haemophilus aphrophilus, Capnocytophaga spp. and a few other contaminating organisms. With the TSBV medium, even modestly equipped laboratories will be able to isolate and identify A. actinomycetemcomitans from clinical (human) specimens.