As market leaders in innovation, ALS have compiled the largest legionella library in the industry. Containing over 60 different species we have added a vast array of culture strains across Europe and the USA. The genus of Legionella has over 60 different species, with some of the species having a number of serotypes within the genus.

ALS Environmental's microbiology centre of excellence in Coventry is one of the first laboratories in the world to UKAS ISO 17025:2005 and have Drinking Water Testing Specification (DWTS) accredit the rapid confirmation technique known as MALDI-ToF. This allows ALS to provide a full speciation of your confirmed Legionella as part of our standard offering at no additional cost.

We have compiled this database through our own research and development work, involving adding isolates found in our common sample matrices. The only known Legionella species that are not in the ALS Legionella library are either VBNC (viable but non-culturable) as they only exist within Amoeba, or the culture is not commercially available.

ALS have been using the MALDI-ToF technique to confirm all positive Legionella samples since January 2014; over this time we have found that over 90% of the Legionella species that we have identified over this time have been Legionella anisa. The anisa strain of Legionella was first isolated during a nomo-social outbreak in the USA in the 1980's and has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a human pathogen.

Click here to download the ALS Legionella Culture Collection.

The MALDI-ToF technique provides customers with a culture based Colony Forming Units per litre (CFU/L) that complies with the Approved Code of Practice for Legionella (ACoP L8) and the Health and Safety Guidance 274 (HSG274), the ALS limit of detection for Legionella is 20 CFU/L. In addtion to complying with the above legislation ALS Environmental are also members of the Legionella Control Association.

If you have a question on our Legionella species database, MALDI-ToF or Legionella PCR testing then please request a quotation or contact us on 02476 42 12 13.