Use: Detect bacterial pathogenic organisms in the stool; diagnose typhoid fever, enteric fever, bacillary dysentery, and Salmonella infection.

Indications for stool culture include:

•  Bloody diarrhea
•  Fever
•  Tenesmus
•  Severe or persistent symptoms
•  Recent travel to a third-world country
•  Known exposure to a bacterial agent
•  Presence of fecal leukocytes

Limitations: Yersinia sp and Vibrio parahaemolyticus will not be isolated unless specifically requested; these will each be done with an additional charge. These organisms are fastidious and have very specific requirements for growth.

Methodology: Aerobic culture on selective media; detection of EHEC Shiga-like toxins by enzyme immunoassay (EIA)

Contraindications: A rectal swab culture is not as effective as a stool culture for the detection of the carrier state.

* Stool Culture; possible reflex to 5 different organisms.