Bacteriocins as tools in analysis of nosocomial Klebsiella pneumoniae infections.

Epidemiological analysis of isolates from nosocomial infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae was improved by the use of bacteriocins in addition to capsular serotyping. Screening for bacteriocins produced by 77 reference strains for capsular serotyping identified 39 strains, and 8 of these strains were selected as a typing set. Using this set, we found that 241 to 259 (91%) nonepidemic clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae were inhibited by one or more of the eight producers. Of the most frequent bacteriocin type there were 31 examples (12%). High reproducibility of typing patterns (83.3%) and easy practicability of typing were achieved with a streak-and-point method avoiding the use of suspensions of bacteriocins and the risk of instability. The Klebsiella bacteriocins were active also on Enterobacter and Shigella species and on Escherichia coli strains, but were ineffective on other Enterobacteriacae.