A note on inoculum reproducibility: a comparison between solid and liquid culture.

The level of reproducibility for replicate determinations of drug sensitivity was significantly greater for liquid than for solid cultures and decreased markedly with the density of colonies upon seeded agar plates. Inocula of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were significantly less sensitive towards chlorhexidine when derived from liquid rather than solid culture. We therefore suggest that only liquid cultures be used for the preparation of challenge inocula for regulatory tests of antimicrobial activity.