Neogen Corporation was selected by the USDA as one of only two U.S. companies to be licensed to manufacture a new culture medium called Campy-Cefex. Campy-Cefex provides a quicker, simpler way to detect and differentiate the pathogens Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli from other, relatively harmless, members of the Campylobacter species.

Campy-Cefex is patented by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service microbiologist Norman Stern, with the ARS Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit in Athens, Ga. Stern’s patented formulation uses only the antibiotics cycloheximide and cefoperazone, and has been shown by the USDA to both grow Campylobacter in a culture and repress the growth of most other microorganisms. Consequently, it was determined that the additional antibiotics previously used with other Campylobacter media were not needed.

"We’re very pleased to have been chosen to manufacture and market Campy-Cefex, a culture medium that the USDA has shown to provide superior performance in detecting the most dangerous strains of Campylobacter," said Ed Bradley, Neogen’s vice president of Food Safety. "The medium has been shown to be both quicker and easier to use than the alternatives, and has also been shown to provide superior selectively for C. jejuni and C. coli. Also, as a partner to numerous poultry production operations, there is an added bit of confidence in offering a medium from the USDA as we work with the regulators to help ensure our customers’ poultry products are safe as they can be."

Campy-Cefex is quicker and easier to use than alternatives by providing a "direct-to-plate" method. Traditional enrichment methods for Campylobacter require a 4-hour pre-enrichment step prior to inoculating media plates with sample cultures. Campy-Cefex entirely eliminates the pre-enrichment step.

Campy-Cefex selects for Campylobacter among competing flora in a sample, cultivating colonies that resemble tiny water droplets. From these, microbiologists can estimate the level of Campylobacter contamination in the sample can be estimated.