HNCMB (Hungarian National Collection of Medical Bacteria)

The HNCMB (Hungarian National Collection of Medical Bacteria) was established in 1962. The HNCMB - listed under No. 258 in the World Data Center for Microorganisms - keeps bacteria, which are mainly of medical importance. Situated at the National Center for Epidemiology (earlier National Institute of Hygiene) in Budapest, HNCMB has ready access to the wide-ranging expertise of specialist in clinical microbiology. The primarily function of the HNCMB is to supply cultures to public health and hospital laboratories and to research and educational institutions. At present the collection holds well about 4000 strains and the number of strains maintained at HNCMB has continuously increased. The strains representing over 90 genera with more than 300 species of bacteria, between them about 400 - 400 strains of Escherichia coli and different members of serovars of Salmonella genus and about 150 strains of Shigella spp. The applications of cultures: quality control strains for testing of media, assay of antibiotics, testing of sterilization procedures and commercial diagnostic kits. Within the HNCMB, bacteria are identified using conventional morphological, biochemical and serological characters and Biolog MicroPlates and API 32 panels, moreover in some cases - by reasons of pathogen marker identifications - PCR. The strains are stored by freeze-drying or freezing by different methods and temperatures. 2006 onwards all new accessions were deposited with employment of "seed lot system". The HNCMB has been certified according to the standard ISO 9001 version 2008 since December 2009 (Certificate No: 25941, NQA). Domain of certification of the HNCMB: preparation, maintenance and control of BSL 2/3 microbial strain collection.