ABSTRACT
All microbiological analysis entails certain procedures, such as collection and transport of the specimen, isolation, identification, and susceptibility testing of the organism, each of which presents certain problems. To overcome these problems certain restrictions or requirements are imposed on each step of the process of anaerobic culturing. This chapter discusses these special requirements for anaerobes to lay a foundation for the evaluation of the suitability of each technique. The collection and transport of specimens for anaerobic culturing is a much more exacting procedure than the collection of aerobic specimens, principally because of certain considerations connected with the selection and collection of specimens and the need to protect the anaerobic specimens from oxygen. The primary culturing and isolation of the offending anaerobe involves two principle activities—the inoculation of the specimen to certain media and the incubation of the cultures, followed by the transfer of the resulting growth to appropriate media.
