Comparison of a modified peptone water transport medium with two commercially available transport media for the recovery of aerobes from swab specimens

Abstract

A laboratory modified peptone water medium was evaluated alongside Stuart and Amies media for their relative suitability as transport media for aerobic bacteria isolated from wound specimens obtained from Central Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. The survival rates of isolates from the three media were assessed quantitatively for a period of seven successive days, using the pour-plate method for making viable counts. The percentage of isolation was in the following decreasing order, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (36.4%), Klebsiella aerogenes (27.3%), Escherichia coli (22.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (18.2%) and Proteus sp (13.6%). The survival rate of aerobic bacterial isolates was enhanced in the modified peptone water transported medium (77.3%) compared with that obtained in Stuart medium (22.7%) and Amies medium 54.5%). Statistical analysis using the students t-test at 90% confidence limit showed significant difference (p < 0.10) when modified peptone water was compared with both Stuart and Amies transport media.