Thermo Scientific have announced that the Thermo Scientific range of products for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) includes all products recommended by EUCAST (the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing) for use in the new, harmonized European disc diffusion method, due for launch in 2010.

The Thermo Scientific range includes:

• All the antimicrobial compounds recommended in the new EUCAST method, as part of the standard Thermo Scientific range of antimicrobial discs.
  


• Mueller-Hinton Agar in dehydrated form or a variety of prepared media formats (plain or with defibrinated horse blood and NAD).
  


• Ergonomically-designed disc dispensers for the accurate placement of discs onto a variety of agar plate sizes (90, 120 and 140mm).
  


• The Thermo Scientific Turbidometer for accurate preparation of 0.5 McFarland inocula.
  


• A wide range of QC organisms, including all EUCAST-recommended strains, in convenient Culti-Loop format for quick, easy and safe preparation of standardized cultures.
  

EUCAST was formed in 1997 with the aim of achieving a European consensus on susceptibility testing to enable comparability of data and resistance surveillance within the international community. The new European disc diffusion methodology has been calibrated to EUCAST-harmonized MIC breakpoints, which are now in widespread use throughout Europe.