Oxoid aura system as a semi-automated, standard antimicrobial susceptibility test method.

The need for a national strategy for antimicrobial resistance surveillance is well recognised. The diversity of susceptibility testing methods in the UK has led to the development of a standard method by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Here, use of an early manual-measurement Oxoid Aura system is compared with an in-house, non-standard method. The usefulness of such a system in the evaluation of antibiotic susceptibility data collected for Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus, is also examined. An automated version of this equipment is now available.