Development of a novel selective agar for the isolation and detection of Bacillus anthracis

Aims The aim of this study was to develop a novel selective agar for the specific isolation and detection of Bacillus anthracis. Methods and Results Based on published data on antibiotic resistance and susceptibility of B. anthracis and other closely related species of the Bacillus cereus sensu lato group, a new selective agar formulation termed CEFOMA (Bacillus CEreus sensu lato group-specific antibiotics, FOsfomycin, MAcrolides) was developed and evaluated. All tested strains of B. anthracis were able to grow on CEFOMA with the same colony number as on non-selective media, whereas CEFOMA inhibited the growth of the other species within the B. cereus sensu lato group. In comparison to other selective agars, CEFOMA had a superior performance and considerably reduced the total amount of accompanying flora in soil. Furthermore, B. anthracis was successfully isolated from deliberately spiked soil samples. Conclusions CEFOMA is a highly promising selective agar for the efficient isolation of B. anthracis from environmental samples with a large bacterial background flora. Significance and Impact of the Study The isolation of B. anthracis from environmental samples is severely impaired by the lack of adequate selective agars which suppress the growth of other bacteria. CEFOMA agar represents an important improvement and suitable alternative to currently used selective agars.