Reliable antimicrobial resistance surveillance depends on consistent antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) practices at the laboratory bench. Variability in foundational steps such as inoculum standardisation, media preparation, and zone interpretation remains a major source of data quality challenges, particularly in routine settings. This page curates essential reference resources to support standardised bacteriology bench practices aligned with internationally recognised AST guidelines.

AST Bench-side Resources

Curated reference materials to support antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), including EUCAST guidance, media preparation notes, breakpoints, and result-reading support.

ResourceWhat it covers (quick use)Link
AST pilot study (Ghana) Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) pilot study in Ghana. Open resource →
Inoculum standardisation Inoculum Standardisation (The McFarland 0.5 Standard, page 9). SOP for 0.5 McFarland preparation and verification per EUCAST v13.0 (2025). Key focus: '15-15-15' workflow. Open resource →
Media preparation (EUCAST AST 2026) Media preparation for EUCAST disk diffusion testing and for determination of MIC values by the broth microdilution method. Open resource →
Alternative media for fastidious organisms EUCAST disk diffusion: Can Mueller-Hinton agar with 5% sheep blood (MH-S) be used instead of Mueller-Hinton agar with 5% horse blood and 20 mg/L βNAD (MH-F) for fastidious organisms? Open resource →
BacDive BacDive (The Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase): Open-access database containing strain metadata including morphology, physiology, and taxonomy. Open resource →
AST breakpoints EUCAST clinical breakpoints (free open access). Open resource →
Reading guide (photos) High-definition photographic library of real AST results. Useful for identifying haze vs. growth, D-phenomena, and difficult zone edges. Open resource →

Tip: Download key PDFs locally for bench-side access in low-connectivity settings.