Phage patterns of Staphylococcus hyicus subsp. hyicus isolated from chickens, cattle and pigs.

Bacteriophage typing was performed on 285 strains of Staphylococcus hyicus subsp. hyicus isolated from pigs, chickens, and cattle, using the 5 S. hyicus subsp. hyicus phages, S9, S13, S39, S188 and CH11. One hundred and twenty-eight (64.3%) of the 199 swine strains, 62 (100%) of the 62 chicken strains, and 24 (100%) of the 24 cattle strains were typable at either routine test dilution (RTD) or 100 X RTD. Most (124/128) of the typable swine strains showed phage patterns consisting of lytic reactions with one or more of the phages S9, S13, S39 and S188. Phage patterns including phage CH11 were detected in only 4 swine strains. All of the typable chicken strains showed phage patterns consisting of lytic reactions with phage CH11. Cattle strains had the phage patterns that were found most frequently in swine and chicken strains. This study suggested that phage typing might be a useful marker for distinguishing ecovars within S. hyicus subsp. hyicus.