Microbial contamination poses threat to the quality and safety of products used every day. To protect patients and consumers and meet regulatory requirements, the medical equipment and biotech, personal care, cosmetic products and nutraceutical manufacturers must perform stringent screening and identify environmental isolation in the manufacturing process.
Clinical microbiology has attained various developments with the recognition of several new etiologic agents, development of molecular diagnostic tools, the reemergence of some classic pathogens, automation of antimicrobial susceptibility testing and microbial identification.
Microbial identification is the process of identifying accurate and definitive microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, yeast, virus and other pathogens. The characterization of microorganisms provide major information regarding the origin and impact of the microorganism on animals and humans. Microbial identification is mainly used for the treatment of infection, diagnosis of disease, and to track disease outbreaks associated with microbial infections.
Genotypic and phenotypic are the major methods for the identification of microorganisms. As the microbe is identified for clinical sample, then it is used in susceptibility test, in order to identify relevant method to control. Phenotypic methods are extensive due to their low cost for many laboratories. Some of the measures required for the identification of the microorganism include specimen biochemical test, microscopy, molecular methods, growth on selective, differential and characteristic media and immunological techniques.
Microbial identification plays a significant role in the quality control microbiology labs, in order to support product testing and clean room control program. It is used in various industries, such as pharmaceutical, food, environmental monitoring, and others. In food industry, it is used for the production of food, such as beer, wine, dairy product and fermentation. In pharmaceutical industries, it is used to identify organisms in pharmaceutical ingredient, manufacturing environment, water for pharmaceutical use and intermediates.
Traditional identification techniques require subculture on selective medium, gram staining or biochemical testing and colony isolation, which are time consuming and require intensive effort. The advances in technology have made detection and microbial identification more specific, faster, sensitive and convenient, than traditional assays and is a major growth driver of the microbial identification market. The rapid identification of microorganisms in clinical microbiology laboratory for infections caused by virus, fungi, mycobacterium, parasite and bacteria are needed for patient management for infections. Genotypic microbial identification provides technological advancement in the field of microbial identification. The new methods are rapid, provide high throughput time, and cost are effective. MALDI-TOF method is the widely accepted method due to rapid results, and low consumable cost. It is compatible with large range of culture media and culture conditions. The test only requires a single colony and minimal consumables are required.