[Use of WARD et al's scheme for bacteriophage typing of Salmonella enteritidis strains isolated in Poland]

Abstract

The typing phages set of Ward et al. was used to type a total of 517 strains of Salmonella Enteritidis isolated in Poland in 1986-1995. According to the Ward et al. scheme, 56.5% of the strains tested were assigned to 14 different phage types. Phage types 8, 4, 1 and 4a were placed first, second, third and fourth, respectively. They were dominated both in the outbreak isolates and in the isolates from the other sources. Ten phage types were represented by single strains. Other strains reacted with phages without showing any of the designated phage type (37.1%) or were untypable (6.4%). The Ward et al. scheme seems to demonstrate not enough high degree of strain discrimination for Salmonella Enteritidis isolates in Poland. It seems that the Ward et al. scheme is not enough useful for the epidemiological investigations of Salmonella Enteritidis in Poland.