The CECT has most of the reference strains from the WDCM catalog. This catalog was prepared to facilitate access to the reference strains listed in ISO standards developed by working groups of ISO TC 34 SC 9 (microbiology of food products), ISO/TC 34/SC 5 (milk and milk products) and ISO/TC 147/SC 4 (water quality - microbiological methods) or cited in the "Handbook of Culture Media for Food and Water Microbiology, 3rd ed." (Corry J.E.L. et al., 2012). The list of strains recommended by the ISO working groups can be consulted here.

The catalog satisfies the need to have a unique recommended strains identification system to analyze the performance of culture media and reagents in quality control processes. Thus, equivalent strains available in different culture collections or supplied by different suppliers are unequivocally identified thanks to their WDCM code. You can check the updated list of CECT strains with WDCM equivalence.

Some of these strains have been certified according to their biochemical profile and the appearance of their colonies in selective and differential culture media. 

To facilitate intercomparison exercises, quality controls, etc. in laboratories that use microbial cultures, CECT has studied the behavior of some of the WDCM strains recommended by the UNE-CEN ISO/TS 11133 standard. In this way, the CECT offers its users a series of verified strains that present a typical profile both for the appearance of the colonies in the selective and differential culture media and for the biochemical profile,by using miniaturized multitest systems (API strip). The following strains are currently available:

FILAMENTOUS FUNGI AND YEASTS

 BACTERIA