Bovine TB: Research project summary
Project SE3201: The effect on viability on Mycobacterium bovis of freezing samples prior to cultural testing.
Project duration: 7 years.
This project aimed to assess whether storage of cattle and badger samples at –20 °C had any effect on subsequent attempts to grow Mycobacterium bovis.
The ability to culture from tissues that had been processed for culture and then frozen was found to be reduced; it was recommended that if storage of such homogenates (uniform mixture of soluble tissue suspension) was necessary the use of cyropreservatives (an agent that allow a lower temperature to be attained before the tissue is destroyed by cellular ice crystallization) should be investigated. There was little detrimental effect on the ability to culture from unprocessed tissue that had been frozen for up to eight weeks. However, tissues selected for this study contained obvious and widespread lesions and the effect of freezing on tissue with sparse M. bovis content is unknown.
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Page last modified:
July 7, 2008