Bacteriophage lytic patterns for identification of salmonellae, shigellae, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii, and Enterobacter cloacae.

A series of bacteriophages specific for Escherichia coli (E-1, E-2, E-3, and E-4), Citrobacter freundii (phi I, phi II, and phi III), Enterobacter cloacae (Ent), and Shigella spp. (Sh) have been isolated from hospital sewage. These bacteriophages, in combination with Felix Salmonella phage O-I, were used as a diagnostic phage typing set which included seven phage preparations: O-I, C (phi I and phi III), Sh, E (E-1 and E-2), CE (phi II and E-3), E-4, and Ent. After 20,280 cultures of 27 species and 9 biogroups of 15 genera of the family Enterobacteriaceae and 276 cultures of 8 species of 6 genera outside the Enterobacteriaceae were tested, it was shown that most strains of salmonellae, E. coli, C. freundii, and E. cloacae can be identified accurately. The sensitivities of identification were 83.6% for E. cloacae, 88.8% for C. freundii, 90.3% for E. coli, and 95.76% for salmonellae. The specificities were 99.78% for salmonellae, 99.84% for E. cloacae, 99.89% for E. coli, and 99.97% for C. freundii. The results of bacteriophage lytic patterns were highly correlated with Shigella serotypes. Therefore, such a phage typing set may be used routinely in public hygiene and clinical laboratories.