Ecology of Staphylococcus aureus: characterization of strains from chicken.

The majority of S. aureus strains isolated from beak-swabs and pathological processes in chicken shows coagulation of human plasma (not of bovine plasma), crystal violet-type A, hemolysine-type A, formation of fibrinolysin, not formation of DNase and reactions with the experimental phage A1591. Because of the absence of DNase-formation and the reaction-specificity for phage A1591 we propose to designate these strains as host-specific variety gallinae of S. aureus. The strains from chicken are compared with strains of human, bovine, and ovine origin. An ecological study in a chicken farm has shown that S. aureus strains from chicken are not found in man and vice versa.