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UK Health Security Agency

NCTC Products

The NCTC comprises over 6,000 bacterial cultures and over 100 mycoplasmas.  

Restrictions on the supply of highly pathogenic bacteria exist - Individuals and organisations must be registered with us to access restricted items. 

Authorisation to access restricted pathogens registration form

The National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) houses many bacterial strains that have equivalents within  the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). Equivalent strains have the same provenance, with information on a strain’s depositor to be found in the ‘Additional Info’ tab of its catalogue entry. For example, NCTC 11456 / ATCC 33364 Pseudomonas aeruginosa was deposited into NCTC by ATCC in 1982 following its isolation in 1964. Similarly, NCTC 8375 / ATCC 19424  Neisseria gonorrhoeae was accessioned in 1950 into NCTC, who later deposited it into the ATCC, while NCTC 6571 / ATCC 9144 Staphylococcus aureus was deposited independently into both collections. These shared histories mean the three strain pairs are each denoted as equivalent.  

Each NCTC bacterial strain catalogue entry has 'Other Collection Numbers' information within the ‘General Info’ tab, which shows the equivalent strain number(s) in other major international culture collections. 

Explore our catalogue for ATCC equivalents or download the reference document here.