A different approach to Legionella testing

With its Pseudalert Test for Pseudomonas aeruginosa in water supplies now well-established in healthcare, accepted as a global ISO standard, and specified in the SCA Blue Book – The Microbiology of Drinking Water Part 8, IDEXX Water is now working hard to highlight to healthcare estates and infection control teams, water consultants, and AEs, the benefits of another test system it has developed to keep water supplies in a safe, hygienic condition. The Legiolert Test is ‘a highly accurate, sensitive, and specific test’ to identify levels of Legionella pneumophila, with definitive results in just seven days. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

he IDEXX European Water Division has its headquarters, sales and administrative functions, a small manufacturing facility, and a well-equipped R&D laboratory, at Newmarket in Suffolk, and it is here that some of the work to develop and perfect the new Legiolert technology was undertaken over the past 3-5 years. Scientists working in Newmarket – Nigel Otter, EMEA Marketing manager, explained, when I met he and three of his colleagues there to discuss the development and subsequent commercial success of tests not only for Legionella pneumophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, but also for total coliforms and Escherichia coli, enterococci, and protozoa such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia – developed Legiolert in conjunction with counterparts at the parent group’s worldwide headquarters in Westbrook, Maine, in the US. Having started small, employing just five staff on its formation in 1983, IDEXX is now a global business, with a presence in 105 locations serving customers in 175 countries. Today, IDEXX has a global turnover of over $2.2 bn, and manufacturing facilities in the UK and around the world.

Veterinary diagnostics