Process for bacteria identification and for determination of the

Abstract

A process for bacteria identification and for determining the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics, and an apparatus and measuring supports for carrying out this process. There is manually introduced, by means of a sampling and transfer tool, a given volume of bacterial colony into a primary receiver. This is automatically dispersed within a liquid to form a precalibrated inoculum in the primary receiver. There is automatically carried out total or partial transfer of this precalibrated inoculum between the primary receiver and one or more measuring supports, these transfers being carried out without the precalibrated inoculum being placed in contact with an element other than a sampling and transfer tool and/or the primary receiver and its final measuring support or supports and in such a way that the transferred quantities of bacteria correspond to the quantities required for the analyses to be carried out. The precalibrated inoculum is automatically distributed, optionally after having appropriately diluted it to end up with a definitive calibration in one or more compartments of the measuring supports containing mainly appropriate reagents. Measurements are taken on the content of the compartments during or at the end of one or more incubations undergone by the inoculum in the measuring supports, the measurements taken being registered by a computer and being processed in order to characterized the growth of the bacteria present in the inoculum, to identify them and/or to determine their sensitivity to various antibiotics.