RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Water sample culturing is the reference method to detect Legionella spp. in sanitary facilities. Until 2017, UNE-EN ISO 11731 only included the GVPC medium, which inhibits interfering microbiota but hinders the growth of Legionella spp. To improve its recovery, the new standard incorporates the BCYE medium into the working protocol. METHODS: We inoculated 1306 sanitary water samples onto BCYE and GVPC according to an accredited internal procedure. We compared the number of cfu/L of Legionella spp. detected in both media. RESULTS: The median in BCYE was 2000 cfu/L higher than in GVPC (Pâ¯=â¯.000). In the presence of high amounts of interfering microbiota, both media were similar; in the absence or low interfering microbiota BCYE was four times more sensitive than GVPC (Pâ¯=â¯.000). CONCLUSION: Including BCYE in the analysis of sanitary water significantly improves the recovery of Legionella spp. in low contaminated samples.