Microbial Population
-is the number of colony-forming units (CFU), or viable microbial cells, present in a unit
volume or weight.
Importance
- Microbial counting is useful in the basic sciences and is used to determine the number of
bacteria present for physiological or biochemical studies - Routinely used in the areas of public
health. - Food or water microbiologists test food, milk or water for the numbers of microbial
pathogens to determine if these products are safe for human consumption.
TURBIDIMETRIC METHOD
Disadvantage
Interpreting the turbidity in subjective manner may give inaccurate result.
Valid only for gram negative bacteria.
2:10 1 3
3:10 2 6
4:10 1 3
5:10 4 12
6:10 4 12
POUR PLATING
Dilutions Replicate 1 Replicate 2
-6
10 7 3
10-7 3 5
10-8 0 2
Therefore, there are various methods that can be used in determination of microbial population.
Some of these are spread-plate, pour-plate, spot-plate and turbidimetric method. The most
effective method among these is the spread-plate method because it gives most viable count.
However due to complex procedure it may be exposed to contamination. Second is the pour-plate
method, this also give viable count but due to molten agar the microorganisms might be killed.
Third, the Miles and Misra method is convenient to use and gives viable count as well. But this
method requires skilled person to perform the procedure well. Lastly, the turbidimetric method,
this method is not that accurate since the turbidity was just compared to the McFarland standard.
In addition, the interpretation can be subjective.