Question: As a laboratory assistant you were asked to determine the total number of bacteria in the urine of a person with a urinary tract disorder. After other laboratory tests, you were left with less than 0.1 ml of urine to work with. A standardized inoculating loop (0.01 ml) was available, so you transferred a loopful of the sample to 9.99 ml of a sterile saline solution. You then transferred 5 ml of this dilution into 25 ml of a new sterile saline solution. Finally, you took some of the last diluted urine solution and plated 0.01 ml and 0.1 ml (each in duplicate). 37 and 33 colonies were counted for the 0.01 ml plating and 309 and 341 for the 0.1 ml plating. How many bacteria were present in 1 ml of urine?