Protocol 2 enables accurate counts of Legionella

Synbiosis has announced that its Protocol 2 automated colony counter has been extensively tested to enable rapid, accurate counts of Legionella on any Legionella detection media.

The company's technical team found that by using the Protocol 2 system, 600 Legionella plates could be accurately processed per hour, which is approximately 30-fold more than can be achieved using time-consuming, error-prone, manual techniques.

The team used Protocol 2's red, blue and green light-emitting-diode (LED) lighting (patent pending) with the dark screens shut to allow the reflection-free imaging of shiny buffered charcoal yeast-extract media and Legionella colonies.

Synbiosis tested Protocol 2's method of capturing three different coloured images and automatically combining them to generate lifelike full-colour images.

The team established that this method ensured the simple identification and counts of the Legionella colonies from background flora on Legionella growth media.

Martin Smith of Synbiosis said: 'Microbial contamination with Legionella, which can cause a potentially fatal form of pneumonia, is ubiquitous in both manmade and natural water sources and remains an increasing concern.

'The water industry is continually tightening its regulations worldwide and this has led to a significant increase in the screening and identification of Legionella bacteria in drinking, environmental and recreational water supplies.

'Plates of water samples tend to vary widely from low to very high counts.

'Automating the counting process and recording the results consistently is critical.

'Testing the Protocol 2, we have proved that the system delivers this, ensuring accurate quantification of Legionella in water samples, thus offering microbiologists an excellent method of rapidly checking the safety of water supplies and equipment,' he added.

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