Why doesn't Vibrant culture stool specimens?

Vibrant does not culture stool specimens because culture does not identify all bacteria present. The human gut contains several different bacteria that need totally different conditions to culture, requiring at least 12 different culturing conditions to accurately cover majority of species. Most labs only culture a single plate for aerobic bacteria, eliminating the possibility to detect all other types of bacteria. Over 90% of the bacterial species residing in the large intestine are anaerobic bacteria, so cannot be cultured in an aerobic environment. Additionally, with the advent of sequencing, ample bacteria gene information is available to develop primers. The Vibrant advantage is that we test multiple primers, check hybridization on our DNA microarray, and pick the best primers. This has helped Vibrant develop and have very specific primers for detection. Finally, interpretation in stool microscopy is very subjective (multiple bacteria and parasites look very similar under a microscope), resulting in high error rates.