The ability of the fluorescein diacetate and ethidium bromide fluorescent staining method to assess the percentage of viable bacterial cells in suspension was compared with the plate counting method. Mycobacterium smegmatis and Escherichia coli bacterial cell suspens i ons were incubated at 60°C. At different time intervals samples were taken and the percentage of viable cells in each sample was assessed by the fluorescent staining method and compared with the plate counting method. The fluorescent staining method showed a positive correlation with the plate counting method. However, the viable counts by the plate counting method were lower than the staining method when incubated at 60°C, indicating a lag period in the decay of enzymes after bacterial death. Hence, the fluorescent staining technique can be used to assess the trend of bacterial death rather than to assess the exact number of viable bacilli.
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