IDEXX Newsletter
Great news coming out of our European office! Our Legiolert test, which is used for the rapid, confirmed enumeration of Legionella, has been granted the NF Validation by AFNOR Certification, under the reference No IDX 33/06 – 06/19.
What’s the big deal, you ask?
Fourteen independent labs participated in the study that demonstrated that the performance of Legiolert, a simple to run liquid culture test, was equivalent to the performance of ISO 11731:2017, which has historically been known as the gold standard for Legionella testing. The results were put under intense scrutiny by an expert committee made up of stakeholders from regulatory authorities, manufacturers and users from public, private and industrial laboratories.
And when an international regulatory body that is as highly regarded as AFNOR certifies that your product performs every bit as well as the gold standard – yeah, that’s a big deal. The AFNOR validation study results can be referenced by other global laboratories that want to add the Legiolert method to their scope of accreditation. Plus, Legiolert will give you confirmed, quantified results in just 7 days, cutting wait times by up to 50%. Legiolert tests for all serogroups of Legionella pneumophila, the primary cause of legionellosis (commonly called Legionnaires’ disease).
Legiolert was launched in 2017 by IDEXX to complement its portfolio of water microbiology testing solutions for the monitoring of Legionella pneumophila in hot and cold water systems as well as cooling towers within buildings and facilities, and to assist in the simplification of testing and reduce the risk posed by Legionnaires’ disease. It is a culture method based on a bacterial enzyme detection technology that signals the presence of Legionella pneumophila through utilisation of a substrate present in the Legiolert reagent. Legionella pneumophila cells grow rapidly and reproduce using the rich supply of amino acids, vitamins and other nutrients present in the Legiolert reagent. Actively growing strains of Legionella pneumophila use the added substrate to produce a brown colour indicator. Legiolert detects Legionella pneumophila within 7 days at 1 organism in a 100 ml sample for potable water and at 100 organisms in a 100 ml non-potable sample, such as cooling tower water.
For more information about the Legiolert test learn more here.
This validation follows the recent updates in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standard ASHRAE 188-2018. The accredited standard is for managing legionellosis risk in building water systems.
The AFNOR validation for Legiolert will help labs and water management teams to continue to reduce the risk of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks.
