Bacterial ID Systems - Use Of One Organism For Quality Control
Updated | November 24, 2008
Q. Can one ATCC organism be used to quality control a bacterial identification system?
A. The QC standards require use of both positive and negative controls to ensure proper reactivity for chemical and biological solutions, reagents and antisera used in microbiology. Bacterial identification systems, which are composed of multiple miniaturized biochemical tests, usually have a package insert recommending a combination of ATCC* organisms to meet this quality control requirement. Each lot number or shipment of bacterial identification reagents must be tested using the entire list of organisms unless the criteria for implementing streamlined quality control have been met.
The criteria for streamlined quality control of commercial bacterial identification systems can be found in the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) document M50-A. “Quality Control for Commercial Microbial Identification Systems Approved Guidance”. (See Joint Commission Standard QSA.04.04.01 EP 2
*American Type Culture Collection