Biochemical and cultural characteristics of invasive Escherichia coli

The biochemical characteristics of 97 invasive Escherichia coli strains of different O serogroups were studied. Considered as a group, the behavior of the strains was quite variable. However, none of them decarboxylated lysine and all but seven strains, belonging to the O124 serogroup, were nonmotile. The growth of 25 strains obtained on MacConkey, salmonella-shigella, xylose-lysine-desoxycholate, and Hektoen enteric agars was compared. MacConkey and Hektoen enteric agars yielded the highest average growth for these strains, whereas salmonella-shigella agar had the lowest average counts.