Bacterial genetic fingerprint: a reliable factor in the study of the epidemiology of human campylobacter enteritis?

The rate of human intestinal infections with more than a single Campylobacter strain was determined and the genetic variabilities of Campylobacter strains throughout an infection episode were investigated by means of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR). For 48 and 49 of 50 patients, all isolates from one sample showed identical patterns by PFGE and ERIC-PCR, respectively. Throughout an infection episode in 47 of 52 patients, the PFGE fingerprints of the isolates remained stable, while in 1 patient two different species were observed and in 4 patients different patterns were observed.

Routine identification of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli from human stool samples.

Correct identification of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli isolates to the species or subspecies level is a cumbersome but nevertheless important task for a routine diagnostic laboratory. The widely used biochemical tests might be often misleading while more sophisticated phenotypic or genotypic methods are not generally available. This investigation was performed to assess the performance of common biochemical identification in comparison with species-specific PCR and gas liquid chromatography of whole cell fatty acid extracts (GLC).

Discrimination of Helicobacter pullorum and Campylobacter lari by analysis of whole cell fatty acid extracts.

Helicobacter pullorum and Campylobacter lari are rarely isolated from humans with acute enteritis. Hitherto the two species could only be identified by genotypic techniques. Gas liquid chromatography of whole cell fatty acid extracts is described as the first phenotypic method for discrimination of the two species.

Comparison of different DNA fingerprinting techniques for molecular typing of Bartonella henselae isolates.

Seventeen isolates of Bartonella henselae from the region of Freiburg, Germany, obtained from blood cultures of domestic cats, were examined for their genetic heterogeneity. On the basis of different DNA fingerprinting methods, including pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR, repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) PCR, and arbitrarily primed (AP)-PCR, three different variants were identified among the isolates (variants I to III). Variant I included 6 strains, variant II included 10 strains, and variant III included only one strain.