[Evaluation of the usefulness of new international experimental phages for typing methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)]

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the usefulness of the set of experimental phages obtained from the Central Public Health Laboratory in London for typing of MRSA strains in Poland. The study was performed on 150 MRSA strains isolated from various clinical materials in various regions of the country. The set of 10 experimental phages and the international basic set of 23 phages were used for typing. The results of the study showed that 76.8% of MRSA strains were typing with the experimental set of phages. The frequency of inhibition reactions was 19.9%. Only 3.3% of the strains were nontypable with the new phages while nearly half of the studied strains were nontypable with the basic set of phages. The studied strains were divided into 19 phagotypes. There was a high frequency of typable strains among MRSA typable and nontypable strains and those inhibited by the basic set of phages (71.4%-85.7%). These data indicate that the set of 10 experimental phages is useful for typing of MRSA strains isolated in Poland except for phage M3 which failed to react with almost all the strains and should be excluded from the proposed set.