Put Some Color into Your Lab with Spectrum™ Chromogenic Agars

Spectrum™ is a new differential agar that is used in conjunction with traditional culture methods to aid in presumptive identification of certain common bacteria. When plated on Spectrum™ agar, each organism reacts with substrates contained within the medium to produce a uniquely pigmented colony with distinct morphology. Identification is made by comparing the reactions to a full color reference chart included with your first order.

As an example, E. coli organisms produce a pink to purple colony while Klebsiella produces blue to green-blue colonies. Pseudomonas colonies appear yellow to green. Staphylococcus aureus produces a white colony and Proteus mirabilis colonies appear as tan and diffuse. Most color reactions are genus-specific and organisms will typically grow out in 16-24 hours.

Spectrum-Plus™ combines Spectrum™ agar and traditional TSA agar w/5% blood into a single bi-plate. Blood agar, a non-differential medium that will support the growth of most Gram positive and negative bacteria, can also help identify certain hemolytic organisms such as Streptococcus. Spectrum-Plus™ chromogenic agar is an excellent choice for culturing mares prior to breeding. A paper entitled "How to Diagnose Common Equine Reproductive Tract Bacterial Pathogens Using Chromogenic Agar" (Beehan et.al) presented at the 2009 AAEP conference touted the advantages of using chromogenic agars in the practice setting.

Spectrum™ and Spectrum™ Plus agar are packaged in boxes of 10 individually wrapped plates for extended shelf life. Complete instructions are included.  

Spectrum™ Agar                     35.75

Spectrum Plus™ Bi-Plate      40.75

New! Extra long guarded culture swabs with Amies transport medium.  109.25/Pkg 25