Brazier's Clostridium Difficile Selective Agar (HPA)

Isolate and presumptively identify Clostridium difficile from clinical specimens with Thermo Scientific™ Oxoid™ Brazier's Clostridium Difficile Selective Agar (HPA). The presence of p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid in the medium promotes the production of p-cresol - a metabolite of C. difficile that produces a distinct odour to help in the presumptive identification. The addition of selective agents D-cycloserine and cefoxitin inhibit many bacteria that would normally be present in large numbers within fecal samples such as Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococcus faecalis.

Clostridium difficile was first isolated in 1935 by Hall and O’Toole¹ who proposed the name ‘difficile’ because it was very difficult to isolate. Toxicogenic isolates of C. difficile have been demonstrated to be a major cause of antibiotic-associated ileo-caecitis in laboratory animals² and pseudomembranous colitis in man^3,4

Use Brazier’s Clostridium Difficile Selective Agar for the isolation and presumptive identification of Clostridium difficile from clinical samples.

• Helps presumptive identification of difficile through odour detection of p-cresol.
• Selects for C. difficile from the abundant flora that can be present within fecal samples.
• Easily differentiates difficile from lecithinase positive clostridia due to addition of Egg Yolk Emulsion. Lecithinase breaks down lecithin present in egg yolk emulsion producing insoluble opaque precipitation around the colony.
• Optimises UV light recognition of colonies due to the presence of lysed horse blood.
• Ready-to-use convenience of prepared media

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Remel™ and Oxoid™ products are now part of the Thermo Scientific brand.