Extended incubation of culture plates improves recovery of Bordetella spp

Abstract

Extended incubation of culture plates was studied to see if the recovery of Bordetella spp. from nasopharyngeal swabs could be improved. Forty-eight Bordetella isolates were recovered from 103 children (overall positive-culture rate, 46.6%) who met the clinical case definition of pertussis. Seven of 44 (16%) B. pertussis isolates and 2 of 4 (50%) B. parapertussis isolates were recovered only after extended incubation of nasopharyngeal cultures up to 12 days.