[The NEFERM-Test for identification of psychrotrophic bacteria in food].

Identification of gramnegative nonfermentative bacteria by traditional methods requires much labor and time consumption. Therefore in this study we tested the use of an available commercial diagnostic kit and processing of its results by computerized numerical identification systems. Identification involved 83 gramnegative, psychotrophic, nonfermentative, oxidase-positive bacteria isolated from just slaughtered and deep-frozen chickens. The strains were isolated from primary cultures in Psedomonas F and Endo agar, Violet Red Bile agar (IMUNA, OXOID) and King B agar (King et al., 1954), under two cultivation regimes (room temperature for three days and 7 degrees C for 10 days). A commercial kit for diagnostics of nonfermentative bacteria in clinical microbiology under the name NEFERM-test (Lachema a.s., Brno) containing 12 biochemical assays was used for strain identification: GLU, AGR, IND, ESL, SCI, PHS, URE, MAN, XYL, MLT, LAC, NIT. All these assays were conducted parallelly by traditional methods. Additional tests involved the use of OXI and ONPG commercial strips (Lachema a.s., Brno), gelatin and Tween 80 hydrolysis (Pácová and Kocur, 1984) and fluorescein production (King et al., 1954). These identification systems were used to process the results of tests; index and differentiation table (Lachema a.s., Brno) and numerical computerized systems TNW (Czech Collection (Z. Svoboda, Jihlava). Various shortened procedures, identification keys and systems are used to speed up identification of gramnegative nonfermentative bacteria. Available commercial identification kits (API NE20) in form of microassay have been developed particularly for diagnostics of bacteria from clinica materials, which applies to NEFERM-test of the Czech make.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)