Culture media performance on the detection of actinomycetes from composts

Coelho, Luísa; Reis, Mário; Dionísio, Lídia

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/20333

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Authors

Coelho, Luísa

Reis, Mário

Dionísio, Lídia

Abstract(s)

In this study we evaluated the performance of six culture media on the detection of actinomycetes that were present in composts of agro-industrial wastes from the Algarve region. The composts were produced with orange wastes, olive pomace and grass clippings, in the proportion of 2:1:1 of volume. Two compost piles were built with different ventilation systems, one with forced ventilation and the other with mechanical turning and natural ventilation. In order to quantify the population of actinomycetes, different growth media containing antibiotics were tested and one culture medium containing only half of the concentration of the Plate Count Agar (½ PCA) was also tested. The incubation took place at two temperatures, 25º and 55ºC. Different results were obtained for the enumerations from the culture media. The population of actinomycetes achieved higher values when incubated at 55ºC and when the samples were inoculated in the ½ PCA culture medium. Thus, the antibiotics showed no beneficial effect in the tested culture media. The results suggest the use of the ½ PCA culture medium as the most adequate in order to count the bacterial populations in these samples. This medium is also the less expensive and the one that showed the fastest bacterial growth.