Description
During the past few years the importance of anaerobic microorganisms as pathogenic agents responsible for infectious diseases and the role they play in the microbial spoilage of food have been better appreciated. Clostridial species are one of the major causes of food poisoning or gastrointestinal illnesses. Anaerobic microorganisms have long been known as constituents of the normal bacterial flora of human and animals. Both their pathogenic significance in medicine and their important role in food hygiene have, however, long been underestimated. Anaerobic Thioglycollate Medium is used for the cultivation of anaerobes as described by Caselitz and Freitag. Anaerobes, which are very particular in regard to the nutrient quality of the substrate, grow very well in this medium. It has been proved to be of use in determining the resistance of anaerobes to various antibiotics in the serial dilution procedure. For determining the resistance of anaerobes to various antibiotics, aliquot 4.8 ml of the medium into sterile test tubes containing 0.1ml of serially diluted antibiotic. These tubes are then inoculated with 0.1ml of an adjusted suspension of pure culture of the test bacteria. The lowest antibiotic concentration, which shows no visible growth, is taken as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the antibiotic.
