Convenience of Clostridum botulinum agar for selective isolation of B type of Clostridum botulinum from dry cured Dalmatian ham during family outbreak

During a family outbreak of alimentary botulism in the town of Split (Croatia) the authors tested the convenience of selective Clostridium botulinum agar-CBI (Biolife Italy) which contains egg yolk emulsion as lecithinase substrate, as well as D-cycloserin, trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole as selective agents. CBI-agar was compared to nonselective Columbia blood agar-COL (Becton-Dickinson, USA) and Sulphite agar- SUA (Biolife Italy). According to the preliminary study, CBI agar can be recommended for further examination when isolation of lecitinolytic A, B and F strains of Clostridium botulinum from dried meat product is concerned. Lors d'un cas de botulisme familial a Split (Croatie) les auteurs ont teste differents milieux de culture selectif pour Clostridium botulinum:Gelose CBI(Biolife-Italie), Gelose-COL (Becton-dickinson USA),Sulphite-gelose-SUA (Biolife Italie). Le milieu CBI est selectif, contrairement aux 2 autres milieux: il contient un substrat pour la lecithinase, l'emulsion de jaune d'oeuf, ainsi que la D-cycloserine, le trimethoprim, le sulfamethoxazole. CBI est un milieu recommande pour l'isolement de souches lecithinolytiques A, B et F de Clostridium botulinum infectant les produits carnes seches.