Rapid diagnosis of Brucella melitensis in blood: some operational characteristics of the BACT/ALERT

Abstract

A clinical isolate of Brucella melitensis was detected in a blood culture with the BACT/ALERT after an incubation period of 2.8 days. Dilution studies revealed an inverse linear relationship between the log of the initial concentration of the organism and the time to detection of a positive result. Reproducibility studies demonstrated a mean detection time of 48 +/- 1 h in 8 of 10 replicates seeded with a stock containing 10(2) CFU/ml.