WE HAVE BEEN DOING DST FOR 1ST LINE DRUGS AGAINST MTB USING MB BACT ( BIOMERIEUX). WE DID ISOLATE MANY NTM'S ESPECIALLY POST LAPAROSCOPY ISOLATES, BUT WE COULD NOT DO DST, BECAUSE THERE IS NO GUIDELINES FOR NTM DST . FOR A RAPID DIFFERENTIATION FROM MTB, MPT 64 DETECTION WILL HELP. FOR RAPID GROWERS YOU CAN USE GROWTH ON MACCONKEY. OF COURSE OTHER TESTS  CAN BE USED, BUT THESE ARE RISKY. 

growth pattern in the solid media, its duration, colour give a presumptive idea for NTM as M.tuberculosis, M.bovis take long time to grow than NTM

partial sequencing of rpoB and hsp65 gene is needed for identification which is the quickest method if you want to go to identify upto species level, otherwise 16sRNA is one of the best option to be  confirm.

hsp65/bast II and hae III RE also give idea for NTM

Thank you all.

Hope this could help your research

Article In-vitro antimycobacterial drug susceptibility testing of no...

Hi dear Gulnaz Bashir

I agree with Samir response. Additionally for above responses, PCR and sequencing of  ITS is the best method for identification of nontuberculous mycobacteria. 

Best regards,

Roshdi

Thanks Mr. Shankar and Mr. Roshdi for your response.

First of all, I think that there are certain factors which you might want to consider that would affect the isolation technique or method that you are going to use. The best methods so far would be the use of molecular techniques such as PCR or Polymerase chain reaction for a faster and rapid identification specifically for slow growing NTM. However, I do think that it still depends on how your samples and/or strains of NTM were isolated.

Well ,

I have used GenoType Mycobacterium CM , a commercial Molecular assay for the identification of NTM and it was very really helpful.

this assay can identify 27 species of NTM.

For DST, i would say Mycobacterium growth indicator Tube (MGIT) automated system or LJ conventional method will be fine.