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Four different commercial brucella blood agar plating media (Anaerobe Systems, BBL Microbiology Systems, Remel, and Scott Laboratories) were compared for the abilities to recover anaerobic organisms from clinical specimens and to support the growth of American Type Culture Collection anaerobic stock cultures. Following 24 h of incubation in an anaerobe chamber, Anaerobe Systems prereduced, anaerobically sterilized brucella plates yielded 63% of the total clinical anaerobe isolates, the Scott medium yielded 51%, the Remel medium yielded 42%, and the BBL medium yielded 37%. Poor growth of Peptostreptococcus magnus, P. anaerobius, Fusobacterium necrophorum, F. nucleatum, and pigmented Bacteroides spp. was observed on brucella media obtained from BBL, Remel, and Scott. Data obtained with stock anaerobic cultures showed that Anaerobe Systems plates yielded good growth and produced a larger colony size with all of the strains tested in 1 day, whereas poor growth of Peptostreptococcus spp., B. melaninogenicus, and Fusobacterium spp. was noted on brucella media from BBL, Remel, and Scott.

A 76-year-old man was hospitalized for pneumonia. Bronchoscopy was performed because of a suspected underlying bronchial malignancy. A squamous cell carcinoma was found on bronchial biopsy, but in addition, culture of the bronchial washings grew Salmonella heidelberg. The infection was successfully treated with tetracycline. Although focal and disseminated infections with S. heidelberg have been reported to occur, pneumonia caused by this organism has not been previously documented.