Three methods of blood cultivation were compared: collection of blood into transport bottles containing only dextran-sulphate, collection into cultivation media containing bottles (aerobic, anaerobic and paediatric Dulab) and the semi-automatic continuous blood culture system (Bactec 9000, using aerobic, anaerobic and paediatric bottles). A total amount of 1.250 blood samples collected from 626 patients was divided equally into the compared bottles and processed parallelly. The yield of the Bactec aerobic bottles was significantly higher than the yield of the transport bottles and aerobic Dulab bottles (p < 0.001). However, this result was influenced by the higher rate of contaminating bacteria isolated from the aerobic Bactec bottles. The yield of the aerobic Dulab bottles was higher than the yield of the transport bottles (p < 0.01). The average time needed for the detection of microorganisms in the Bactec bottles was by 24 hours shorter than in the transport bottles and by 19 hours shorter than in the aerobic Dulab bottles (p < 0.001). The difference between the yields of the anaerobic and the paediatric bottles in our study was not significant. The time needed for the detection of microorganisms was by 17 hours shorter in the anaerobic Bactec bottles than in the transport bottles (p < 0.05).