Standardness of antimicrobial discs by various manufacturers in the light of import substitution

In connection with the introduction of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation by the United States, the European Union, Japan, and a number of other countries, import substitution is becoming one of the strategic objectives of the Russian economy The comparative assessment of standardness and effectiveness of six antimicrobial commercial producer-varying disks for clinical and test strains of microorganisms has been conducted. It is based on analyzing of the variation coefficient (Cv) of inhibition zone diameters, mean values, and diameter values ranges, which are indicators of reproducibility, accuracy and efficiency, respectively. Discs from BD BBL result in insignificant variations of inhibition zone diameters, providing accurate and reproducible data. Imported discs available on the national market from a friendly country produced by HiMedia Company are showed more variation and inferior in quality to BD BBL ones. There are satisfactory results for some domestic discs, but discs with imipenem, meropenem, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin are not standard enough to assure reproducible results. To have reliable data on antibiotic susceptibility of infectious agents, incoming and routine quality control of antimicrobial disks is needed as a compulsory procedure for every bacteriological laboratory.