Rapid identification and strain-typing of respiratory pathogens for epidemic surveillance.

Epidemic respiratory infections are responsible for extensive morbidity and mortality within both military and civilian populations. We describe a high-throughput method to simultaneously identify and genotype species of bacteria from complex mixtures in respiratory samples. The process uses electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and base composition analysis of PCR amplification products from highly conserved genomic regions to identify and determine the relative quantity of pathogenic bacteria present in the sample.