The Legionellaceae are fastidious gram-negative bacteria that reside in aquatic environments all over the globe. In their natural environment, the Legionellaceae are intracellular parasites of free-living protozoa. Legionella is traditionally detected by culture on buffered charcoal yeast extract (BCYE) agar. Legionella requires the presence of cysteine and iron to grow and therefore does not grow on common blood agar media used for laboratory based total viable counts or on site dipslides

https://catalog.hardydiagnostics.com/cp_prod/Content/pdf/Growth%20Requirements.pdf

You can use BCYE , GVPC, MWY . However for your purpose not is necessary a selective media, for this reason my suggestion is BCYE.

BCYE is ok.

BCYE Differential Agar (Buffered Charcoal Yeast Extract Differential Agar),

BCYE Agar with Cysteine

BCYE Medium, Diphasic Blood Culture (Buffered Charcoal Yeast Extract Medium, Diphasic Blood Culture)

BMPA-α Medium

BYEB (Buffered Yeast Extract Broth)

CCVC Medium

CYE Agar

F-G Broth

Legionella Agar Base

Legionella Selective Agar

Hi There,

a bit late with a response but here goes. Growing Legionella in broth media is very tricky. You can use cye agar as the broth but it is black (of course) so you can't see visible growth. Legionellae also grow very poorly in broth. They don't do well on agar but broth is even worse. Why do you want broth cultures?

cheers,

Richard

http://www.healthlinkinc.net/Products.html  catalog numbers 1198, and 1194

BCYE  agar with cysteine   or  GVPC agar

Hi Mahshid, I will soon also try growing L. pneumophila in a broth medium for suceptibility testings (microtiter plate with indicator). I wonder what have been your experiences and have you been successful?

I also like to know if there is any medium that has no charcoal and still can be used for Legionella.

Hi Mahsid,

if you're bring Legionella out of a freeze dried culture I would first steak onto agar (BCYE) first and get some colonies growing. Legionella do not grow at all well in broth cultures so direct inoculation of lyophilised specimens into broth may not work very well. Sorry it's a bit late but hope it helps.

cheers,

Richard

BCYE

Thank you