CORK (Hole) BORER

Cork or hole borer is a piece of instrument used to create holes on solid agar media. It is an important tool required for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) in the microbiology laboratory especially when performing agar well diffusion tests or determining the antimicrobial activity of a particular plant product, in which case holes are usually created in agar plates.

Cork borers exist in various sizes (ranging from 1-10 mm), and the one to use depend on the type of investigations to be done or on the experience of the scientists. They provide accurate diameter on agar plates required for well diffusion sensitivity tests in the microbiology laboratory (Figure 1).

The main component of the cork borer includes the metallic handle and a metallic hollow tube with a conical open end for making holes on agar media.      

MAINTENANCE/CARE OF THE CORK BORER

• Cork borers are metallic instruments, and should be kept in clean dry places to avoid rusting.

• They should be properly disinfected after use and cleaned with dry towel.

REFERENCES

Cheesbrough, M (2006). District Laboratory Practice in Tropical countries Part I Cambridge

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Dictionary of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, 3^rd Edition. Paul Singleton and Diana Sainsbury. 2006, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Canada.

Goldman E and Green L.H (2008). Practical Handbook of Microbiology, Second Edition. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, USA.

Madigan M.T., Martinko J.M., Dunlap P.V and Clark D.P (2009). Brock Biology of microorganisms. 12^th edition. Pearson Benjamin Cummings Publishers. USA.

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Prescott L.M., Harley J.P and Klein D.A (2005). Microbiology. 6^th ed. McGraw Hill Publishers, USA.

Willey J.M, Sherwood L.M and Woolverton C.J (2008). Harley and Klein’s Microbiology. 7^th ed. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, USA.