News

Competition Winner!

Congratulations to James Green from Scottish Water who won our competition to win £50 worth of High street Vouchers. Thank you to those who entered - keep an eye out for more competitions from us in the future!

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Compact Dry™ Plates certified by Nordic Committee on Food Analysis

A recent article has been published comparing Compact Dry™ with ISO methods. Compact Dry™ Plates were shown to be comparable with the reference methods and have been issued certificates of validation by NordVal.

» To see the full article, click here.

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Selectrol^®: New - Salmonella Nottingham (16:d:enz15) NCTC 7832

We are pleased to announce the addition of Salmonella nottingham NCTC7832 to the Selectrol^® range.

Salmonella nottingham is recommended by the HPA as the positive control in the detection of Salmonella species. Salmonella nottingham NCTC7832 is now recommended as a result of increased prevalence of the previously recommended Salmonella poona species in food samples.

Selectrol^® is a convenient source of viable micro-organisms which can be used for a variety of quality control and testing applications that are guaranteed to be a first generation derivative of the original NCTC strain.

For more information and full strain listing please click here.

Selectrol^® batches are tested for a wide range of identification and characterisation attributes in our UKAS accredited testing laboratory, number 2496. A test report for each batch of Selectrol^® is available via this website.

The reporting of the test results via the web forms part of the UKAS accredited system.

Selectrol® discs are manufactured exclusively from NCTC (NATIONAL COLLECTION OF TYPE CULTURES) and NCPF (NATIONAL COLLECTION OF PATHOGENIC FUNGI) cultures and are guaranteed first generation derivatives from the source strain.

Small print: NCTC and the National Collection of Type Cultures are trade marks of the Health Protection Agency.

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New Product: Isolate Cryptosporidium IMS

Until recently, the manual immunomagnetic separation (IMS) procedure was the only step in the DWI approved Cryptosporidium method which had not been improved. TCS Water Sciences has now developed a semi automated IMS system, Isolate^®, based on a kit developed by ImmuCell Corporation, USA.

Isolate^® is a unique product offering semi automated immunomagnetic separation (IMS) of Cryptosporidium oocysts in environmental water samples. Isolate^® is able to process pellets of up to 2 ml in volume, significantly reducing the need for split samples, and yields good recoveries even in dirty water samples. The automation of the Isolate^® test standardises the rocking motion, eliminating human error and achieving improved consistency and reliability of results.

Cryptosporidium oocysts in the concentrate are captured and separated by magnetic action. Separated oocysts are stained with an approved FITC antibody stain, and visualised by fluorescence microscopy.

TCS Water Sciences compliments the Isolate^® Cryptosporidium test by offering a range of high quality Cryptosporidium testing products; our expertise in the field of Cryptosporidium enables us to offer you technical support and advice. TCS offers exceptional levels of customer service to ensure you get what you want when you want it.

The following table shows the results of a study which compared the Isolate^® system with a manual IMS test. Isolate^® achieved considerably improved results with increased recovery of Cryptosporidium, and greater consistency, evidenced by the narrower data ranges. The results highlight the sensitivity of the manual method to operator technique and thus the superiority of automation.

Percentage recovery of Cryptosporidium from an upland treated water sample.
	Manual IMS		*Isolate^®*
Packed Pellet	0.5ml	1ml	0.5ml	1ml
Mean (n = 10)	49.7	48.4	83.7	80.4
Range	30-82	17-91	72-92	62-89
Percentage recovery of Cryptosporidium from a river water sample.
	Manual IMS		*Isolate^®*
Packed Pellet	0.5ml	1ml	0.5ml	1ml
Mean (n = 10)	54.2	30.0	68.1	75.4
Range	45-66	25-41	60-85	58-87

Materials supplied by TCS Water Sciences:

Isolate^® Cryptosporidium 100 Test Kit (ZAICS100)
Isolate^® Rotator Disc and Hub (ZAICS2)
Incu-Clip (ZAICS3), Magna-Clip (ZAICS4), Micro-Clip (ZAICS5)
Dissociation Block (ZAICS8)
Variable speed rotator (ZAICSI)
Glass Leighton tubes (ZAICS6)

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15 Minute Cryptosporidium Antibody

New, from Cellabs, Cryptosporidium IFA 15 Minute stain.

High-definition monoclonal diagnostic test for rapid detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in human faecal samples as well as water and sewage samples.

Cellabs are specialists in waterborne infections and are pleased to introduce this high performance diagnostic kit which enables the rapid detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts. The monoclonal antibody reacts specifically with the oocyst cell wall to give a clearly defined morphology, making accurate diagnosis possible.

No need for revalidation, DWI approved.

Download more information here (pdf)

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Bubble Buster

Due to difficulties obtaining reliable supplies, we are no longer able to offer the Bubble Buster product. Consequently this product has been removed from this web site and our online catalogue.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

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