Scientific Basis: How Filta-Max xpress® Works

Foam technology has been successfully used for the capture and recovery of Cryptosporidium and Giardia for over nine years.

The Filta-Max xpress® system has utilized IDEXX’s expertise in foam filtration technology to create a breakthrough in Cryptosporidium and Giardia capture and recovery.

While retaining all the benefits of foam technology, the new filter has been specifically designed to:

• Effectively capture and recover oocysts and cysts from a wide range of turbid matrices
• Dramatically simplify the processing portion of the test, saving time and labor

Filter Module: The filter module is constructed of 40 reticulated foam discs with a diameter of 5.5 cm (with an 1.8 cm diameter hole), and 39 discs with a diameter of 4.0 cm (also with an 1.8 cm diameter hole). All the discs are 1 cm in depth.

Discs: The discs are stacked alternately to a height of 79 cm and then compressed to a height of 3.0 cm. A retaining bolt maintains the compression. This produces a filter module consisting of an outer region with a 13.3X compression ratio and an inner core with a compression ratio of 26.6X.

Filter housing: The filter is placed in a reusable filter housing for sampling.

Sampling process: During the sampling process, the outer region acts as a prefilter and the inner core as a barrier. As a result, the majority of target organisms become trapped at the interface between the inner and outer regions, with larger particulates caught in the prefilter.