Observations on phage-typing of Clostridium difficile: preliminary evaluation of a phage panel.

Of the various methods now employed to type Clostridium difficile, the performance of the phage-typing, as proposed by Sell et al., was investigated on a large collection of isolates from various local epidemiological settings. Because those isolates appeared in preliminary trials mostly resistant to the reference phages, the panel was enlarged by including newly isolated phages. The new set was redundant but better suited to the purpose: out of 287 phage sensitivity patterns 8.4% only were resistant in comparison to the 67.6% resistant to the reference one.