• Detection of bacterial pathogenic organisms in the stool
• Diagnose typhoid fever, enteric fever, bacillary dysentery, Salmonella infection

Yersinia sp and Vibrio parahaemolyticus will not be isolated unless specifically requested; these will each be done with an additional charge. These organisms are fastidious and have very specific requirements for growth.

A rectal swab culture is not as effective as a stool culture for detection of the carrier state.

A single stool specimen cannot be used to rule out bacteria as a cause of diarrhea. It is recommended that two or three stool specimens, collected on separate days, be submitted to increase the probability of isolating a bacterial pathogen.

Specimen should be collected in sterile bedpan, not contaminated with urine, residual soap, or disinfectants. Those portions of stool which contain pus, blood, or mucus should be submitted for analysis.

Check the expiration date of transport; do NOT use expired devices. Fecal specimens for different tests often need different transport containers and different transport conditions (eg, frozen, raw stool). Specimens should be portioned out to separate devices of each type for each test requested before sending to the laboratory. Only a thumbnail-size portion of stool, about 1 g or 1 mL, should be added to the vial. Overfilling the vial will reduce recovery of stool pathogens.

Add stool to the ParaPak C&S container until the liquid reaches the indicated fill line.

Stool transport media/vial - Culture and sensitivity (C&S)

Rectal swab:

Pass swab beyond anal sphincter, carefully rotate, and withdraw. Swabbing of lesions of rectal wall or sigmoid colon during proctoscopy or sigmoidoscopy is preferred.

Duodenal or sigmoid aspirate:

Specimen should be collected by a physician trained in this procedure. Stool specimen can be divided for other types of cultures by laboratory. Miscellaneous tests and ova and parasites tests should be split into appropriate containers and transport devices prior to shipping to the laboratory.

Ambient - 72 hours

• Specimen received in grossly leaking transport container;
• Diapers
• Dry specimen
•  Specimen submitted in fixative or additive
• Specimen received in expired transport media or incorrect transport device
• Inappropriate specimen transport conditions (not in a C&S vial or in an overfilled C&S vial)
• Specimen received after prolonged delay in transport (usually more than 72 hours)
• Specimen stored or transported frozen
• Wooden shaft swab in transport device
• Unlabeled specimen or name discrepancy between specimen and request label

• Aerobic culture on selective media
• Detection of EHEC Shiga-like toxins by enzyme immunoassay (EIA)

An interpretive report will be provided