Serological and biological characteristics of "Streptococcus milleri" isolates from systemic purulent infections

Ninety-one Streptococcus milleri strains isolated from various systemic purulent lesions of 68 patients were examined by physiological and serological tests. Most strains formed a smooth colony (66 strains), did not form spontaneous aggregation of cells in BHI broth culture (79), were non-beta-haemolytic (alpha-35 or non-41), and belonged to biotype Ia (49) or Ib (34) and to API taxa S. milleri I (41) or II (38). Almost all of the beta-haemolytic strains as well as two-fifths of the non-beta-haemolytic belonged to API taxon I; strains of API taxa II and III were non-beta-haemolytic and non-haemolytic, respectively. Two-fifths (38) of the isolates belonged to one of eight serotypes, a-g and k, and more than half (47) to Lancefield groups A, C, F or G, the most frequent being type b (19) and group F (33). Fifteen strains carried simultaneously type a/group A, b/C, c/C, e/G, f/F or k/G antigens. Nineteen were neither typable nor groupable. All the 38 serotypable isolates were non-beta-haemolytic and not members of API taxon III, and were serologically and physiologically similar to oral S. milleri. The isolates from various infected sites--sputum, thorax, abdomen, urogenitalia, skin, eye and dental--exhibited distinct combinations of biological and serological properties. These results suggest that serotyping, haemolytic properties and API taxon, and their combinations, would be useful methods to trace oral S. milleri in systemic infections.