A 35 years old patient complains of abdominal cramps along with profuse diarrhea. The treating physician wants to process the stool culture for isolation of Campylobacter jejuni. Which of the method of choice for stool culture?

Ans. is 'b' i.e., Culture on Skirrow medium and incubated at 42degC under microaerobic conditionsRef:(Harrison, 19th/e, p. 1038; Ananthanarayan, 9th/e, p. 400)The culture characteristics are most important in the isolation and identification of C jejuni. Selective media are needed, and incubation must be in an atmosphere with reduced O2 (5% O2 ) with added CO2 (10% CO2 ). Incubation of primary plates for isolation of C jejuni should be at 42degC. Although C jejuni grows well at 36-37degC, incubation at 42degC prevents growth of most of the other bacteria present in feces, thus simplifying the identification of C jejuni. Several selective media are in widespread use. Skirrow's medium contains vancomycin, polymyxin B, and trimethoprim to inhibit growth of other bacteria.