Comparative distribution of the serotypes of Enterococcus faecalis isolated from the urine of patients with urinary tract infections and the feces of healthy persons as determined by the slide agglutination reaction.

In 1992, we reported a new scheme for identifying 21 distinct serovars of E. faecalis by the bacterial agglutination reaction. In this study we isolated strains of E. faecalis from the urine of patients with urinary tract infections and serotyped. We also serotyped strains of E. faecalis isolated from the faces of healthy persons. The results showed that serovars 2, 7, 1 and 3 were the major serotypes a distribution on strains of E. faecalis isolated from patients. Serovars 2, 1 and 13 were the major serotypes of the fecal strains isolated from healthy persons. Single serovars were typable of all strains of E. faecalis isolated from patients in 80.6% (395/496) and in 62.4% of the fecal strains. Examination of the hemolytic zone around colonies on horse/sheep blood agar plates showed that beta-hemolytic strains on horse blood agar plate isolated from patients had 36.1% for all isolated strains from patients and 8.3% for fecal strains isolated from healthy persons.