Oxoid™ Burkholderia cepacia Medium

Isolate Burkholderia cepacia from respiratory secretions of patients with cystic fibrosis with Thermo Scientific™ Oxoid™ Burkholderia Cepacia Agar Base, which is also used for routine testing of non-sterile inorganic salt solutions in hospital environments. The slower growing B. cepacia can be missed on conventional media, such as blood or MacConkey Agar, due to overgrowth caused by other faster growing organisms found in the respiratory tract of CF patients, such as mucoid Klebsiella species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus species.This may lead to the infection being missed or wrongly diagnosed.

Burkholderia cepacia (formerly known as Pseudomonas cepacia) is a motile aerobic oxidase positive Gram-negative bacillus commonly found in liquid reservoirs and moist environments. The cells are 0.5 to 1.0mm wide and 5mm in length. It is an important opportunistic pathogen and causes pulmonary infection among individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). Isolates from CF patients often display multidrug resistance and as many as 20% of colonised individuals will succumb to Burkholderia cepacia syndrome, a necrotizing pneumonia associated with fever that culminates into a rapid and fatal clinical deterioration¹.

Burkholderia Cepacia Agar Base is based on PC Medium originally devised by Gilligan et al. where it was shown to be superior for growth of Burkholderia cepacia after 48 hours when compared to MacConkey². Typical Burkholderia cepacia colonies are circular and sage green, the medium turning from straw-green to bright pink during incubation. All colonies should be further identified and confirmed.

Originally isolated from onions, Burkholderia cepacia can survive for long periods and multiply in hostile environments, such as antiseptic and disinfectant solutions, distilled water, whirlpool baths, nebulizers and commercially packaged urinary catheter kits³. An outbreak in Arizona in 1998 due to contaminated alcohol-free mouthwash was investigated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who suggested an association with the deionization procedure of the water used to prepare the product⁴. The organism may be present in low numbers in many non-sterile products used in hospitals. It has been isolated from various water sources and can grow in distilled water with a nitrogen source due to its ability to fix carbon dioxide from air⁵. Suction catheters rinsed in acetic acid solution have reduced incidence of transmission of Burkholderia cepacia and other pseudomonads.

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