A New Selective Medium for Detecting Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae in Rice Seeds

A selective agar medium was developed and tested for the isolation of Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae, the causal bacterial pathogen of bacterial brown stripe, from rice seeds. The new selective agar medium, designated sorbitol pyroglutamic acid agar (SPA) medium, contained 0.5 g of $K_2$HPO$_4$, 3.0 g of Na$_2$HPO$_4$, 2.0 g of D-sorbitol, 0.2 g of L-pyroglutamic acid, 10.0 $m\ell$ of tween 80, 40.0 mg of victoria blue B, 15.0 g of agar, 150.0 mg of ampicillin and 25.0 mg of vancomycin per litter. Colonies of A. avenae subsp. avenae on SPA medium were smooth, round, convex, shiny, blue and 1.5-2.0 mm in diameter 4 days after incubation at 28$^{\circ}C$. Blue colored colony having dark blue zone was typical type of A. avenae subsp. avenae colonies on the medium. Mean recovery of 8 isolates of A. avenae subsp. avenae on the selective SPA medium was 95.8% in comparison to that on KB medium. The saprophytic bacteria were reduced to 97.9% on SPA medium compared to those on KB medium. Most of other rice seedborne bacteria as well as reported pathogenic bacteria were failed to grow on SPA medium. This medium was highly selective for recovering A. avenae subsp. avenae from rice seed samples, and it could be used to enhance the recovery of this bacterium from rice seed samples, which may be contaminated with large numbers of competing microorganisms.