Sorry I scolded you for vanishing, thanks for your reply. A quick search for “the plating assay” turned up this comment: “Applications: Spot plating is widely used in microbiology for studying antibiotic resistance, metabolic capabilities, and other microbial behaviors.” So this would not be useful for studying antibiotic resistance etc. if many factors can get in the way, and obscure the causes. Do you have evidence that Axe did not take proper precautions?
Again, I note that he has, and punting on this is not at all a good reply.