Method and apparatus for the detection of bacteria

A method for the detection of bacteria comprising the steps of

• A) provision of one or more suspensions each comprising at least one species of labelled test bacteriophages which specifically bind to a bacterial species to be detected;
• B) addition of a sample to be tested for the presence of at least one bacterial species to be detected to the one or more suspensions;
• C) filtration of the resulting reaction mixture, wherein a filter with a pore size of 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm is used;
• D) detection of bacteria-bacteriophages-complexes in the retentate, provided that at least one bacterial species to be detected is present, wherein the complexes consist of bacteria of the at least one bacterial species to be detected and test bacteriophages of the at least one species of test bacteriophages bound thereto;
• E) detection of unbound test bacteriophages in the filtrate;
• F) processor-aided processing of received signals generated by the detection in steps D) and E) and output of detection results to a user,
• wherein the one or more suspensions further comprise a labelled reference bacteriophage which does not bind to any bacterial species to be detected and which has a label disjunct from the test bacteriophages such that labelled reference bacteriophage is also detected in step E);
• or wherein labelled microparticles or nanoparticles are used in alternative to a labelled reference bacteriophage, which do not bind to any bacterial species to be detected and can pass through the filter due to their small size.