Culturing Bacteria 

Bacteria are responsible for a great number of diseases. Examples include pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumonia), tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis). Veterinarians, scientists, and hospital technicians culture bacteria to study, diagnose, and prevent disease (Cleveland Clinic, c2023; Lagier et al., 2015). 

Veterinary researchers study cultures of Escherichia coli (E. coli) to understand how this pathogen invades the bovine lactiferous duct (teat canal) and produces mastitis (Erskine, 2020). 

Dairy cattle raised in stalls and bedding contaminated with fecal matter are particularly susceptible to mastitis; infected cows exhibit inflammation of the udder, hyperthermia, and abnormal milk production (Canadian Bovine Mastitis Research Network, n.d.; Zaatout, 2022). 

This week, while working at the veterinary medicine laboratory at the University of Calgary, I was trained to culture E. coli (Figure 1) so that I could contribute to research that will further our understanding of bovine mastitis. 

During that training session, I learned to keep bacterial cell lines pure by using sterilized tools and working in a laminar flow hood; I gained an appreciation for how easily microbial intruders can contaminate research cultures; and I discovered that results obtained from contaminated cell lines are unreliable.