Blood Agar (BAP)
Blood Agar (BA)
are enriched medium used to culture those bacteria or
microbes that do not grow easily. Such bacteria are called “fastidious” as they
demand a special, enriched nutritional environment as compared to the routine
bacteria.
Composition of Nutrient Agar
- 0.5% Peptone
- 0.3% beef extract/yeast
extract
- 1.5% agar
- 0.5% NaCl
- Distilled water
Blood Agar is made from
Nutrient Agar more:
- 5% Sheep Blood
- pH should be from 7.2 to
7.6 (7.4)
Preparation of Blood Agar
1. Suspend 28 g of nutrient agar powder in 1
litre of distilled water.
2. Heat this mixture while stirring to fully
dissolve all components.
3. Autoclave the dissolved mixture at 121 degrees
Celsius for 15 minutes.
4. Once the nutrient agar has been autoclaved,
allow it to cool but not solidify.
5. When the agar has cooled to 45-50 °C,
Add 5% (vol/vol) sterile defibrinated blood that has been warmed to room
temperature and mix gently but well.
6. Avoid Air bubbles.
7. Dispense into sterile plates while liquid.
Prepare culture
The specimen streaking on Blood Agar (BAP) agar.Incubation 37c 18-24h and CO2 5-10%.
Uses of Blood Agar
Blood Agar is used to grow a wide range of pathogens particularly those that are more difficult to grow such as Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria species. It is also required to detect and differentiate haemolytic bacteria, especially Streptococcus species. It is also a differential media in allowing the detection of hemolysis by cytolytic toxins secreted by some bacteria, such as certain strains of Bacillus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, and Aerococcus.
Blood agar can be made selective for certain pathogens by the addition of antibiotics, chemicals or dyes. Examples includes crystal violet blood agar to select Streptococcus pyogens from throat swabs, and kanamycin or neomycin blood agar to select anaerobes from pus.
1. Blood Agar is a general purpose enriched
medium often used to grow fastidious organisms
2. To differentiate bacteria based on their hemolytic properties (β-hemolysis, α-hemolysis and
γ-hemolysis (or non-hemolytic).
Hemolytic Blood Agar
Beta hemolysis (β-hemolysis): Streptococcus dysgalactiae,Group A streptococcus, Clostridium perfringens, Listeria monocytogenes.etc.
gamma hemolysis (γ-hemolysis or non hemolysis) : Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus epidermidis.etc.
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