Discussion:

The study of enumeration of confirmed gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus

using Baird Parker agar is applied to our experiment in determining the population of the
bacteria based on different foods given to the practical students. Baird Parker agar
medium is known as moderately selective or differential medium where it is used to
isolate the presence of Staphylococcus aureus with its characteristics of black shiny
colonies and white entire margin (Instructions for use - Ready-to-use Plated Media, 2018).

Food samples such as nasilemak, nasikerabu, fried kueyteow, curry puff and
mixed salads were used in this experiment to examine the total plate counts of
Staphylococcus aureus present in the foods. In view of observation, the total colony
forming unit per g (cfu/g) for nasikerabu is the highest among the other food samples,
which is 1.49 × 105cfu/g. This explains that low hygiene level in food preparation of
nasikerabu might due to improper handling of the food. According to the Nouwen’s
research, Staphylococcus aureus is most commonly found in the nasal tract of humans no
matter the person is categorized as healthy individual or else (Nouwen, 2001). However,
environment sites such as air and dust are also the principal habitat that is able to flavor
the growth of Staphylococcus aureus (Nouwen, 2001).

There are some precautions steps have to be taken to ensure the smoothness of the
experiment as well as to improve the results. In this case, all the materials, agar plates,
table and tubes should be sterilized before performing the experiment as to reduce the
contamination (Sanders, 2012). For example, the spreader is immersed in alcohol after
every spread on the agar surface. Besides, the sample suspensions have to vortex
thoroughly to ensure the suspension is equally distributed (Sanders, 2012). Third, the
agar plates with inoculums that has been equally spread previously are encouraged to left
on bench until the inoculums is absorbed (Sanders, 2012).

The advantage of using Baird Parker agar is that it enables the growth of
Staphylococcus aureus and later by making it easier to perform the assay of detection and
isolation. As to strengthen against this point, researchers found that Staphylococcus
aureus is a fastidious pathogen (Brett and Bradfute, 2015). On the contrary, Baird Parker
agar is not completely selective for the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, thus,
sometimes the contaminated microbes might be the competitors to Staphylococcus aureus
against the available nutrients. As such, the isolation technique or even the enumeration
of Staphylococcus aureus is not easily to undergo.

References:

Brett, M. and Bradfute, S., 2015. Staphylococcus aureus: Current State of Prevalence,
Impact, and Vaccine Development. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 21(16),
pp.2131-2135.

Instructions for use - Ready-to-use Plated Media., 2018. Heidelberg, p.1.

Nouwen, J., 2 001. Determinants of Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage. The

Netherlands Journal of Medicine, 59(3), pp.126-133.

Sanders, E., 2012. Aseptic Laboratory Techniques: Plating Methods. Journal of

Visualized Experiments, (63).