BLOOD AGAR BASE, MODIFIED

Blood Agar Base, Modified is a highly nutritious medium generally used as a basal medium for preparing blood agar by supplementation with blood. It can also be used as general-purpose media without the addition of blood.
Addition of blood makes the medium more nutritious by providing additional growth factors required by fastidious organisms. It also helps in visualizing the haemolytic reactions. However, haemolytic reactions depend on the animal blood used. Sheep blood gives best results for Group A Streptococci. But sheep blood fails to support growth of Haemophilus haemolyticus since sheep blood is deficient in pyridine nucleotides. However, when horse blood is used H. haemolyticus colonies produce haemolysis and mimic Streptococcus pyogenes.

for recommended as a base to which blood may be added for use in the isolation and cultivation of fastidious pathogenic microorganisms