PRODUCT SUMMARY AND EXPLANATIONSOYA CASEIN DIGEST AGAR is general purpose medium used with or without blood for enrichment and isolation of fastidious microorganisms. It is a good medium for isolation of anaerobes. This medium is used for a multitude of purposes including maintenance of stock cultures, plate counting, and isolation of microorganisms from a variety of specimen types and as a base for media containing blood. PRINCIPLE: Medium contains combination of Pancreatic digest of casein and papaic digest of soyabean meal makes this media nutritious by providing amino acids and long chain peptides for the growth of microorganisms. Sodium chloride maintains the osmotic balance. Agar act as solidifying agent. The initial specimens should be inoculated onto another suitable medium and incubated for 18-24 hours in an aerobic atmosphere supplemented with carbon dioxide. Many pathogens require carbon dioxide on primary isolation therefore plates may be incubated in an atmosphere containing approximately 3 - 10% CO at 35 ± 2oC for 24 - 48 hours and on maximum incubation period for 3 5 days at 30oC 35o C by using membrane filtration, spread plate and pour plate method. Choose one or two well-isolated colonies those resemble Haemophilus species and perform Gram-staining to confirm that the isolate is a gram-negative rod or cocco - bacillus. Prepare suspension of 102CFU/ml (10-15 colonies) in 5 ml sterile, purified water or Soya casein digest broth and vortex to mix. Dip a swab in the suspension and inoculate the entire surface of the plate with the swab. With sterile forceps, place a Taxo X factor strip, a V factor strip and a XV strip on the plate, at least 20 mm apart. These strips are impregnated with Haemoglobin, routinely used for differentiation and isolation of Haemophillus sp.