Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata, Anthrax Reference Institute of Italy, Foggia, Italy.
BMC Microbiol. 2013 Jul 18;13:167. doi: 10.1186/1471-2180-13-167.
In this work are reported the results of a qualitative analytical method capable of detecting Bacillus anthracis spores when they are present in very low concentration in the soil. The Ground Anthrax Bacillus Refined Isolation (GABRI) method, assessed in our laboratory, was compared with the classic method. The comparison involved artificially anthrax-contaminated soil samples (500 spores/7.5 grams soil) and naturally contaminated soil samples collected in Bangladesh during a field investigation.
The results indicated that, in contrast to the classic method, the GABRI method was able to detect B.anthracis in all contaminated samples. The GABRI method produces a more sensitive measure of anthrax spore presence significantly different from the standard method. In particular, the latter is more sensitive to the presence of normal soil contaminants.
The main feature of the GABRI method is its ability to strongly reduce the presence of the environmental contaminants, which being much more numerous than B. anthracis tend to inhibit their germination and growth making it extremely difficult to visualize any colonies. The reduction of the microbial environment also allows one to be able to culture and test a larger quantity of potentially contaminated soil and to isolate B. anthracis when the spores are present in very low concentrations in the soil.
本工作报道了一种能够在土壤中极低浓度下检测炭疽芽孢杆菌孢子的定性分析方法的结果。我们实验室评估的地面炭疽杆菌精炼分离（GABRI）方法与经典方法进行了比较。比较涉及人工炭疽污染土壤样本（500 个孢子/7.5 克土壤）和在孟加拉国实地调查期间采集的自然污染土壤样本。
结果表明，与经典方法相比，GABRI 方法能够检测到所有污染样本中的 B.anthracis。GABRI 方法对炭疽孢子存在的检测更灵敏，与标准方法有显著差异。特别是，后者对正常土壤污染物的存在更为敏感。
GABRI 方法的主要特点是其能够强烈减少环境污染物的存在，由于环境污染物的数量远远多于 B. anthracis，它们往往会抑制其发芽和生长，使得很难观察到任何菌落。微生物环境的减少还使得能够培养和测试更多数量的潜在污染土壤，并在土壤中炭疽芽孢杆菌孢子浓度非常低时分离出 B. anthracis。
