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Collaborative trial of the direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT), a rapid method for counting bacteria in milk
Author(s) -
Pettipher G.L.,
Fulford Rosemary J.,
Mabbitt L.A.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1983.tb02604.x
Subject(s) - bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , mathematics , biology , statistics , chromatography , chemistry , genetics
The direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT) is a new rapid method which uses membrane filtration and epifluorescent microscopy for counting bacteria in milk. A collaborative trial of the DEFT was conducted between six laboratories. Each laboratory obtained a highly significant relationship between the DEFT count and plate count with a correlation coefficient generally > 0.9 but there were significant differences between these relationships. The repeatability of the DEFT, although ca 1·5 times worse than that of the plate count, was of a level acceptable in practice. Reproducibility of the DEFT was ca 3 times that of the plate count. This poor reproducibility was probably mainly due to counting errors. Possible reasons for this and ways of reducing counting errors are discussed.