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Anaerobiospirillum spp., motile, spiral anaerobic bacteria, have been implicated as a cause of diarrhea and bacteremia in humans. Anaerobiospirillumlike organisms and Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens were reported from 17 cases of diarrhea. Sixteen of the patients did not have any underlying disorders and recovered from the infection; the other one, who had a heart defect, did not. The formulation of a selective medium for Anaerobiospirillum spp. has enabled a survey of human, cat, and dog feces as possible sources for these anaerobic bacteria. Anaerobiospirillum spp. were not isolated from 527 "normal" human feces but were found in both cat and dog feces. We also describe biochemical tests and API ZYM results ofA. succiniciproducens and anaerobiospirillumlike organisms.

A sensitive method for detecting bacterial elastase production in growing cultures is described. A variety of commonly isolated clinically relevant aerobic and anaerobic bacteria have been shown to produce the enzyme.

SUMMARYTwo enrichment methods were compared for their ability to recover Clostridium difficile from stool samples. One method used selective enrichment in an antibioticcontaining broth followed by detection with a latex particle agglutination (LPA) reagent. The other used enrichment in a non-selective broth following treatment of the specimen with alcohol. With clinical specimens enrichment culture was significantly more successful at detecting C. difficile than direct plating. Alcohol shock enrichment was twice as effective as direct culture, while selective broth enrichment was three times more effective. The use of LPA for screening selective enrichment broths for C. difficile should prove a cost-effective measure as only positive broths (about 20%) require subculture for confirmation.

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