Table 2

Number of experiments in which Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium smegmatis were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and recovered from macerated tissue

Time	MAC	M tuberculosis	M smegmatis
Data provided by a series of six separate experiments using tissue from a different donor for each experiment.
SEM
15 minutes	6/6	5/6	6/6
3 hours	5/6	5/6	6/6
24 hours	5/6	2/6	6/6
7 days	3/6	2/6	3/6
14 days	5/6	1/6	1/6

Macerated tissue
15 minutes	6/6	6/6	6/6
3 hours	6/6	6/6	6/6
24 hours	5/6	6/6	6/6
7 days	6/6	6/6	4/6
14 days	6/6	6/6	1/6