Difficulties in identifying Klebsiella strains of clinical origin

Two hundred and four strains of Gram-negative bacteria of clinical origin, initially identified as Klebsiella using the API 20 E system, and 10 reference strains were further analysed with the API 20 EC test system and the API 50 CH, API 50 AO, API 50 AA assimilation systems. Four clusters corresponding to the species Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae, K. oxytoca, K. planticola, and K. terrigena were formed after numerical analysis of 155 selected tests and the 26 most discriminating tests were determined. A comparison was made between conventional identification using the API 20 E system and the results of the numerical analysis. The conventional method resulted in incorrect identification of 13% of the strains tested, especially for the new species: K. planticola and K. terrigena. After numerical analysis, 17 out of 204 strains (8.3%) of clinical origin were identified as K. planticola. Only 1 strain of clinical origin was identified as K. terrigena, and 1 strain as K. ornithinolytica.