Isolation and characterization of Streptococcus suis capsular types 9-22.

The incidence and biochemical patterns of Streptococcus suis capsular types 9-22 are presented. Of 148 untypeable (with types 1-8 antisera) isolates of S. suis recovered from diseased pigs, 10% were not capsulated. Of the remaining 134 isolates, only 53% belonged to capsular types 9-22; capsular types 22 and 9 were the most prevalent, representing 19% and 13%, respectively. Capsular type 15 (de Moor's group T Streptococcus) is reported here for the first time in North America since it was described in 1963 in Europe. Of 188 untypeable isolates recovered from clinically healthy pigs, 25% were noncapsulated. Of the remaining 141 isolates, 90% belonged to the new capsular types, and 87% were identified as 1 of 4 types: 17, 18, 19, and 21. Capsular types 12 and 20 were not detected among the Canadian isolates. Almost half of strains were arginine dihydrolase-negative, and 45% fermented mannitol, which is seldom a positive test with capsular types 1-8. Although some strains were negative with salicin or trehalose, none were negative for both sugars. Only 54% of isolates tested with 1 rapid multitest system were correctly identified as S. suis. A tentative biochemical profile that might be used with a microplate identification system is also presented. Biochemical identification using the conventional system instead of the rapid multitest system is preferable.