Product Range Ready for New Harmonised European Disc Diffusion Method

Oxoid announced that the Oxoid range of products for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) includes all products recommended by EUCAST (the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing) for use in

the new, harmonised European disc diffusion method, due for launch in 2010.

The Oxoid range includes: all the antimicrobial compounds recommended in the new EUCAST method, as part of the standard Oxoid range of

antimicrobial discs; Mueller-Hinton Agar in dehydrated form or a variety of prepared media formats (plain or with defibrinated horse blood and NAD); ergonomically-designed disc dispensers for the accurate placement of discs onto a variety of agar plate sizes (90, 120 and 140mm); the Oxoid Turbidometer for accurate preparation of 0.5 McFarland inocula; and a wide range of QC organisms, including all EUCAST-recommended strains, in convenient Culti-Loop format for quick, easy and safe preparation of standardised cultures.

EUCAST was formed in 1997 with the aim of achieving a European consensus on susceptibility testing to enable comparability of

data and resistance surveillance within the international community. The new European disc diffusion methodology has been calibrated to EUCAST-harmonised MIC breakpoints, which are now in widespread use throughout Europe.