For example, the average Ct-values changed almost 2-fold from 22.0 to 43.6 as the bacterial concentration decreased from x 107 cfu/ml to × 10¯³ cfu/ml (Supporting File S1). The bacterial dilutions x 10 cfu/ml and × 10³ cfu/ml showed almost similar mean Ct-values equal to approximately 32. Similarly, the mean Ct-values of approximately 36 were observed for x 10' cfu/ml and x 10¯¹ cfu/ml (Supporting File S1). These low distinctions between the closely de fined bacterial dilutions probably happened due to exper imental errors. However, we observed a consistent in crease in mean Ct-values from x 107 cfu/ml (Ct=22.0