Legionella Acid Buffer is used to aid in the selective isolation of Legionella spp.

Legionella spp. are aerobic, motile, nutritionally fastidious, Gram-negative rods that require special growth factors in culture media to grow. Transmission occurs through aerosolization or aspiration of contaminated water, not person-to-person.

Legionellosis refers to two distinct clinical syndromes: Legionnaires’ disease, which most often presents as severe pneumonia, and Pontiac fever, which is an acute, febrile, self-limiting, viral-like illness. Over fifty species of Legionella have been identified, however, Legionella pneumophila remains the most prevalent etiological agent of Legionnaires’ disease.

Legionellae are more resistant to lower pH and brief exposure to higher temperatures than many other freshwater bacteria. For some water samples with high levels of bacteria, it is necessary to use a selective procedure to reduce the number of non-Legionella spp. before culture. Acid treatment of samples with acid buffer is routinely used for this purpose and to aid antigen extraction according to ISO 11731:2017