LACHICA’S MEDIUM BASE

Description

Aeromonas, a heterotrophic gram-negative bacterium is found worldwide in all types of water, food and soil. Wound infections caused by Aeromonas usually occur when abraded mucosal surface come into contact with contaminated water, soil or marine products (fish fins or hooks) during recreational or occupational activities. Lachicas Medium Base, recommended by APHA is used for the isolation and cultivation of Aeromonas hydrophilla. This medium is a modification of SA Agar as per Lachica, formulated by Palumbo et al, and found to be useful in studying A. hydrophilla in foods held under different temperature conditions. Lachicas Medium is therefore also known as Modified SA Agar where SA stands for Starch and Ampicillin respectively. The original SA Medium is a differential medium, which utilizes starch hydrolysis as the differential trait and ampicillin to suppress the accompanying microflora. In Modified SA Agar i.e. Lachicas Medium the starch has been replaced with amylose azure. This gives better and faster growth of A. hydrophila.