[Identification of cultures of Mycobacteria cultivated using sodium salicylate medium]

Sodium salicylate test is used in bacteriological practice to distinguish M. tuberculosis and M. bovis from other mycobacterial species. The species of the strains growing in sodium salicylate media are not as a rule identified. This was done using gas chromatography with cultures which had grown in Lowenstein-Jensen media with sodium salicylate and isolated from the patients admitted to the Tuberculous hospital in 1991-1993. Only 20% of the strains belonged to human mycobacteria, the others were opportunistic or saprophyte mycobacteria (M. avium, M. fortuitum, M. phlei, M. flavescens, M. vaccae, M. smegmatis), some of the cultures were not of the Mycobacterium genus, but belonged to other Actinomycetales. It is evident that with sodium salicylate test one cannot be absolutely sure of Mycobacteria isolation. The strains growing in sodium salicylate medium call for further investigations.