Application of a new phagetyping scheme to campylobacters isolated during outbreaks

A new scheme for phagetyping campylobacters has been evaluated using strains isolated from five outbreaks. The phagetyping results have been compared with the results of Penner serotyping, Lior serotyping and Preston biotyping. Phagetyping recognized the causative strains in all of the incidents and also differentiated these strains from animal and environmental strains isolated during these investigations. In some outbreaks phagetyping proved to be more discriminatory than serotyping or biotyping, e.g. strains of Penner serotype 2, and serogroup 4, 13, 16, 50 were subdivided by this method. Phagetyping is to be recommended for typing strains from outbreaks and although the results indicate that it may be used alone we advocate that it should be used in conjunction with one of the established typing methods.