High resolution DNA fingerprinting of Acinetobacter outbreak strains

AFLP is a novel high resolution fingerprinting method that can be used to delineate intraspecific relationships among a large variety of organisms, including bacteria. In the present study, this method was tested for its usefulness in the epidemiological typing of Acinetobacter strains. A total of 25 Acinetobacter strains originating from five hospital outbreaks in three countries were used. Isolates from the same outbreak displayed identical banding patterns and each set of outbreak strains could be found in one particular AFLP cluster. These data are in good agreement with the results obtained by other typing methods previously used on the same set of strains, indicating that AFLP analysis may be a valuable alternative in epidemiological typing.