VIII. Quality control
Under normal operating conditions, the blood agar plates are not quality controlled in our laboratory but are quality controlled by Becton-Dickinson Microbiology Systems. The hemolytic reaction of most bacteria submitted to this laboratory is known and identified with the culture upon submission. If a problem should be identified then quality control strains are used for testing the proper hemolytic reactions. Streptococcus pyogenes strain SS-103 is used for determining beta-hemolysis, Streptococcus sanguinis strain SS-910 is used for determining alpha-hemolysis, and Streptococcus bovis strain SS-752 is used for determining no reaction (neither beta or alpha hemolysis) on trypticase soy 5% sheep blood agar plates. All reactions are determined according to the 1977 CDC Laboratory Update, Isolation and Identification of Streptococci. Part I. Collection, Transport and Determination of Hemolysis (See annex 1).