Blood Agar Base No. 2

Blood Agar Base No. 2 medium after addition of blood, medium permits maximum recovery of Streptococci, Pneumococci and other fastidious pathogenic microorganisms without interfering with their haemolytic reactions. It is a highly nutritive medium. Microorganisms producing haemolysin give visible haemolytic zones on this medium. It also serves as a differential medium for Brucella and Campylobacter species by adding different antibiotics supplements for the respective bacteria. Also it can be used to prepare Chocolate Agar for the isolation of Haemophilus and Neisseria species, where horse blood is used for enrichment. Better results are obtained by spreading half of the horse blood agar plate with 2 drops of saponin.