A new isolation medium for the revovery of Yersinia enterocolitica from environmental sources.

Yersinia enterocolitica has been isolated from a wide variety of sources throughout the world. The isolation of this organism requires special awareness from bacteriologists. To ease this procedure, we have developed a new isolation medium-BABY 4-meant to be used for environmental studies. Compared with previously recommended media, such as SS agar, SS-D agar, and urea-novobiocin agar, it allows easy detection of Y. enterocolitica in various types of waters. It counterselects Enterobacteriaceae species from Y. enterocolitica in a ratio of 10 to 10 and makes quantitative studies of environmental sources possible. This medium also allows the detection after 3-4 days' incubation of as few as 10 Y. enterocolitica per gram of stool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]