meat extract (Merck), 0.65% (w/v) NaCl (Merck), 0.8% (w/v) potassium nitrate (Merck), 0.8% (w/v) sucrose (Merck), 0.1%
(v/v)Tween 80(Merck), and 1.7% (w/v) agar(Merck),pH7.1 ± 0.2) and incubated at 30∘C for 48 h. The sticky aspect of the
colonies was determined by testing them for slime formation using the inoculated loop method [10]. The isolates were
considered positively slimy producer if the length of slime was above 1.5 mm.