Diamante Scientific Chocolate Blood Agar (CBA), (10-Pack) Tryptic Soy Agar with 5% Lysed Sheep Blood, Pre-Poured, Flat-Packed, Vacuum Sealed, 15x100mm Petri Plates. Industry Use: Clinical.

Our Chocolate Blood Agar (CBA) plates are Tryptic Soy Agar with 5% defibrinated Sheep Blood that has been lysed by slowly heating. The composition of our Chocolate agar and our Blood Agar is same and the only difference is while preparing Chocolate agar, the red blood cells are lysed. Chocolate agar is used for growing fastidious respiratory bacteria, such as Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis. In addition, some of these bacteria, most notably H. influenzae, need growth factors such as NAD (factor V) and hemin (factor X), which are inside red blood cells; thus, a prerequisite to growth for these bacteria is lysis of the red blood cells. The heat also inactivates enzymes which could otherwise degrade NAD. The agar is named for the color and contains no actual chocolate.