Use of syringe filters to isolate Campylobacter species from stool samples.

We investigated the efficacy of syringe filters and membrane filters with different pore sizes for recovering Campylobacter. A syringe filter with a 0.45 μm pore size achieved the highest recovery rate (0.29%), while polycarbonate membrane filters with pore sizes of 0.6 μm and 0.4 μm recovered less Campylobacter, at 0.01% and 1.3 × 10 ^-3 %, respectively. We also tested 601 diarrheic stool samples using membrane and syringe filtration methods. A total of 23 Campylobacter jejuni/coli were isolated from both syringe and membrane filtration; nine and one were isolated from only syringe or only membrane filtration, respectively (p < .05). The syringe filtration technique was better than membrane filtration for the isolation of Campylobacter.
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