Description
The pre requisite of a transport medium is that it should be non-nutritive, semi-solid, and reductive and should be able to hamper self-destructive enzymatic reactions within the cells and in addition, must inhibit toxic oxidation reactions. Amies modified Stuart’s Transport Medium by replacing glycerophosphate with an inorganic phosphate buffer and adding charcoal to the medium. This modified medium gave a higher percentage of positive results than the transport medium of Stuart. Amies Transport Medium provides a reduced environment due to the presence of sodium thioglycollate and small amount of agar. For the collection of the specimens, use sterile cotton-tipped swabs or wooden sticks. Push the swab down one third of the medium depth. When the cap is screwed down, the swab is forced to the bottom of the medium. The cap should be firmly screwed. Keep the medium cool during transportation but do not freeze. The specimen will be preserved during transportation and also the viability of the organisms will be maintained. But the viability will diminish over the time. Some growth of contaminants may also occur during longer period of transport. After transportation, the specimen should be inoculated in proper medium as soon as possible. For optimum results, the time lapse between sample collection and inoculum onto culture medium should be reduced to the minimum. The cultures on transport swabs must not be kept at room temperature for more than 24 hours.
