Paper I
2023 July (Supplementary) (2010 Scheme) · 40 marks · 120 min

Question

Give two examples of enriched media.

Q72 marksShort Notes

Answer

Two examples of enriched media (basal media supplemented with extra growth factors — blood, serum, or egg — to support fastidious organisms that ordinary media cannot):

  1. Blood agar — nutrient agar supplemented with whole sheep blood, supporting fastidious organisms such as Streptococcus and Pneumococcus, and additionally showing the haemolysis pattern (beta/alpha/gamma) useful for identification.
  2. Chocolate agar — blood agar that has been heated to lyse the red cells, releasing NAD (factor V) and haemin (factor X), which support the growth of fastidious organisms such as Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria species.

(Other valid examples: Loeffler’s serum slope for Corynebacterium diphtheriae; Lowenstein-Jensen medium for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.)

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