A new anaerobic blood culture medium: laboratory evaluation.

Summary A new medium, Diagnostic Anaerobic Growth Medium (DAG) was evolved for the culture of anaerobic bacteria from blood. Redox potential measurements of DAG, in comparison with four other commonly used media (supplemented peptone broth; thioglycollate broth; chopped meat glucose broth; tryptone soya broth) showed the Ecal of DAG medium to be lower than that of the other media tested. The new medium recovered more quickly after addition of blood, to reach “blank” values within 4 h. Growth curves of 21 anaerobic bacteria in DAG medium showed that they all multiplied satisfactorily.