Parasites are usually macroscopic organisms of various genera that infect man, animals and plants, However, our interest in this chapter is on human parasites. The process of examination of clinical specimens for parasites begins with parasite specimen collection. Again, two types of specimens are generally examined. These are fresh specimens and preserved specimens. FRESH SPECIMEN … Read more
Detection of Animal Viruses The presence of viruses in an animal or plant is recognised by the manifestation of some abnormality in whole organisms or host cells. In whole organisms the manifestation of the presence of a virus varies from inapparent infections which may only be detected by the formation of antibodies or by the … Read more
The first essential thing for good microbiological diagnosis is that the specimens reaching the laboratory should be well chosen and of good quality. A specimen that is poorly taken, badly contaminated or unrepresentative of the infected lesion cannot provide accurate information about the pathogens present no matter how advanced the methods applied to its na … Read more
Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin in 1929 began a new era of antibiotic chemotherapy. In the 1940’s industrial production of penicillin started. Many antibiotics are currently available in the market and many more will still be discovered. Whether for a synthetic chemical or an antibiotic, the trial and error procedure involves testing for antimicrobial activity … Read more
Sometimes, it is necessary to inhibit the activities of microorganisms and at other times to destroy them completely, on a given object or within living tissues. Several methods can be used to achieve these objectives. These include methods in sterilization, Disinfection, Antisepsis and antibiotics. Sterilization This is the process of complete destruction of all microorganisms … Read more
Microbiologists working in the laboratory often have to determine the microbial cell concentration in a given sample and may ‘also compare the amount of microbial growth under various conditions. The enumeration of microorganisms is very important in dairy microbiology, water microbiology, food microbiology as well as in research. In process engineering the knowledge of biomass … Read more