BACKGROUND: The isolation of Brucella species from blood may be achieved by using classic culture techniques, but detection of the organism is difficult due to its slow growth. The time-to-detection of Brucella can take up to 30 days using the Castaneda blood culture method. Automated blood culture systems have reduced the growth time of Brucella. MATERIAL/METHODS: In this report we would like to contribute our experience on detection time in the isolation of Brucella species from 33,039 blood culture sets using BacT/ALERT between 1995 and 2000 (13 isolates) and thereafter using both the BACTEC and BacT/ALERT systems (17 isolates). RESULTS: Thirty Brucella spp. (17 by both systems and 13 by BacT/ALERT only) were isolated from 33,039 blood culture sets between 1995 and 2002. Brucellae were recovered between 1.8 and 3.7 days (mean: 2.5 days) in the BacT/ALERT blood culture system and between 2.1 and 3.8 days (mean: 2.8 days) in BACTEC 9240 system. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the mean time-to-detection could be

Keywords: Bacteremia - diagnosis, Brucella - isolation & purification, Brucellosis - drug therapy, Hospitals, Turkey