Applications of a new method for devising bacteriological serotyping schemes.

Greatly simplified serotyping schemes were devised for two organisms, Escherichia coli and Campylobacter jejuni. The mathematical approach developed to improve the E. coli serotyping routine at the National Health Institute in New Zealand was used on three previously published data sets. It had been considered possible that the mathematical method used in the first study was specific to that data set and therefore not applicable elsewhere. This paper verifies that the mathematical method works on two other E. coli collections and on another bacterium, C. jejuni, and therefore greatly strengthens the assertion made in the earlier paper (C.J. Thompson, J. Clin. Microbiol. 25:774-780, 1987) that this mathematical approach has general applications and can be used to produce efficient and effective serotyping schemes in any laboratory choosing to apply the method to its set of sera.