Microbiological culture
A rolling method over a Plate Count Agar+additives(Balis Laboratorium
BV, Boven-Leeuwen, The Netherlands) was used to evaluate the bacterial
contamination. The distal 8-10 cm of the FE and the tip were
cultured. The FE was rolled over
the agar plate until the entire circumference had touched the plate.
Sterile tweezers were used to fix the FE, to prevent partial lifting of
the FE from the plate. The cultures were incubated
at
36°C for 72 hours. A more
detailed protocol can be found in Appendix 1.