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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2003, p. 5654-5659, Vol. 41, No. 12
0095-1137/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.12.5654-5659.2003
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Epidemiology and Laboratory Branch,1 Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Laboratory, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia2
Received 25 June 2003/ Returned for modification 14 August 2003/ Accepted 15 September 2003
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Other species of Vibrio such as V. vulnificus, which has a fatality rate of approximately 50% in patients with primary septicemia, also cause significant human disease (11). Photobacterium (Vibrio) damselae, V. metschnikovii, and V. cincinnatiensis have all been isolated from patients with bacteremia or meningitis (7, 12, 14, 15, 29). V. parahaemolyticus is also the cause of many outbreaks (11).
Commercial bacterial identification systems are used in the vast majority of hospital-based clinical microbiology laboratories. To date, there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of the ability of these systems to accurately identify the 12 species of Vibrio known to infect humans. The database matrices of all six systems do not include all 12 of the species, but all systems claim the capability to identify V. alginolyticus, V. cholerae, P. damselae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulnificus.
This study evaluated the ability of the six commercially available bacterial identification systems to accurately identify members of the family Vibrionaceae.
(This paper was presented in part at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C., 19 to 22 May 2003 [C. M. O'Hara, E. G. Sowers, C. A. Bopp, N. A. Strockbine, and J. G. Wells, Abstr. Annu. Meet. Am. Soc. Microbiol., abstr. C008, p. 118, 2003]).
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All six cards and panels are products that have been the subject of extensive publications in the past. Readers are referred to prior reports for more details on the products (22-24, 30).
Culture collection. All 125 strains of biochemically typical and 10 atypical (3 strains each of V. alginolyticus and V. damselae and 4 strains of V. hollisae) members of the family Vibrionaceae were taken from the culture collections of either the Diagnostic Microbiology Section (DMS), Epidemiology and Laboratory Branch, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, or the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Laboratory Section (FDDLS), Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Laboratory Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An isolate is considered atypical if there are no more than three characteristics exhibited by that isolate that are present less than 5% of the time (e.g., a citrate-positive isolate of a species that is normally 95% citrate negative). The 10 atypical strains that were used in this study exhibited only one unusual characteristic per isolate. The cultures were maintained in either defibrinated sheep blood (DMS) or tryptic soy broth with 20% glycerol (FDDLS) at -70°C and were passaged four times on tryptic soy agar with 5% sheep blood (TSA II; Becton Dickinson Biosciences Inc., Sparks, Md.) before testing. For studies with the MicroScan Rapid Neg ID3 panels, the fourth passage was on MacConkey agar. All incubations were at 35 ± 1°C, unless otherwise indicated. If the isolate did not grow on MacConkey agar, the inoculum was taken from a fourth passage on a sheep blood agar plate. For the initial testing of any given isolate, all products were inoculated from the same blood or MacConkey agar plate.
Only the species that were included in a respective system's database were included in that part of the evaluation, i.e., not all isolates were tested in all systems. However, the number of isolates of a given species remained constant across the systems.
If an initial identification was in error, two additional tests were done simultaneously. The best two of three answers were used for the categorization of that isolate.
Media, biochemical tests, and serology. Biochemical tests for enteric identification were performed with conventional media and methods described by Edwards and Ewing (9), with some modifications by Hickman and Farmer (16) and Farmer et al. (10). Commercial media were used whenever possible.
If an identification required serology for confirmation of V. cholerae or V. parahaemolyticus, it was performed as described by Shimada et al. (28) with V. parahaemolyticus antiserum obtained from Denka-Seiken Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) and V. cholerae antiserum produced in-house.
Additional tests. If the probability level of an identification was below that established as the minimum acceptable level for a given product, additional tests were performed to achieve an identification. The additional tests were different for each product and often were not tests that are in common use in clinical microbiology laboratories. Those that were required in this study are listed below.
API 20E required tests for fermentation of glucose, cellobiose, trehalose, and xylose; growth on MacConkey agar; production of gas from glucose; esculin; motility; methyl red; growth in 4% sodium chloride (NaCl); and resistance to the vibriostatic agent O129.
The Crystal E/NF required tests only for the reduction of nitrate, Voges-Proskauer, production of H2S, and ornithine decarboxylation.
The MicroScan conventional overnight product required tests for oxidase, Christensen's urea, fermentation of trehalose, production of gas from glucose, liquefaction of gelatin, methyl red, motility, DNase, and growth of the organism in 0, 6, or 8% NaCl.
The MicroScan rapid panel required tests for the fermentation of sucrose, adonitol, rhamnose, and cellobiose; oxidase; Voges-Proskauer; arginine; flagella stain; Vibrio nitrate reduction (supplemented with 1% NaCl); and the ability to grow in the presence of 0, 8, or 10% NaCl.
The Vitek GNI+ card required only the test for the ability to grow in the presence of 6.5% NaCl or serologic confirmation of an identification.
The Vitek ID-GNB additional tests included oxidase, motility, indole, pigmentation, and hemolysis on sheep blood agar.
Definitions. "Correct" indicates that the product gave the correct genus and species at the end of the designated incubation time with no additional tests required.
"No ID" indicates that the product gave an identification of "no ID," "unacceptable ID," or "unidentified" at the end of the designated incubation time.
"Correctlow probability" means that the correct answer was given but at a probability level below that established as the minimum acceptable level for each respective product. This level differs for each product. For both of the Vitek products, it is 90%; for both of the MicroScan panels, it is 85%. The answer from the Crystal E/NF must be
0.9000 or additional tests are required for an answer to be generated. An API 20E answer must be categorized as "excellent," "very good," "acceptable," or "good" or additional tests are required for the completion of an identification.
"Inconclusive" means that the product gave an incorrect genus and species but at a probability level below that established as the minimum acceptable level for that product. It could also mean that the product gave three different answers on each of the three tests for a given isolate.
"Error" means that the product gave an incorrect genus and species at a probability level above that established as the minimum acceptable level for each respective product.
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TABLE 1. Accuracy of identification of isolates from 10 Vibrio species by six commercial systemsa
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TABLE 2. Results of testing eight species of Vibrio in the API 20E strip (read at 18 to 24 h)
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TABLE 3. Results of testing nine species of Vibrio in the BD Crystal E/NF panel (read at 18 h)
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TABLE 4. Results of testing eight species of Vibrio in the MicroScan Neg ID2 panel (read at 16 to 20 h)
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MicroScan Rapid Neg ID type 3. This panel contains a combination of 35 conventional and enzymatic substrates that are read at 2 h 20 min after the automatic addition of the rapid indole reagent by the WalkAway. There are nine Vibrio species in this database, and 125 strains were tested (Table 5). The overall accuracy was 73.6%, with all V. alginolyticus, P. damselae, V. furnissii, V. hollisae, and V. mimicus strains identified correctly. V. parahaemolyticus was the biggest problem for this system, with only 40.0% correctly identified at the end of the initial incubation period. Of the remaining 18 strains, 14 were identified as V. parahaemolyticus, but at a very low probability.
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TABLE 5. Results of testing nine species of Vibrio in the MicroScan Rapid Neg ID3 panel (read at 2 h 20 min)
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90% probability. Two of the three misidentified V. vulnificus strains were called V. metschnikovii.
Vitek GNI+.
This card contains 28 conventional biochemicals and requires at least 6 h of incubation time. No additional reagents are needed in this totally sealed system. Six species of Vibrio are included in the database, and 102 strains were tested with a Vitek 32 (Table 6). Overall accuracy was 73.5%, with only V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus having greater than 90% accuracy. Seven of the 10 answers from testing V. fluvialis were V. fluvialis, but at probability levels below 90%, which is the minimum acceptable threshold for this product. Four of the five V. cholerae identifications that were in error were V. alginolyticus at probability levels
92%. The fifth error was a V. cholerae strain identified as V. parahaemolyticus at 92% probability.
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TABLE 6. Results of testing six species of Vibrio in the Vitek GNI+ card (read at 2 to 8 h)
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TABLE 7. Results of testing eight species of Vibrio in the Vitek ID-GNB card (read at 3 h)
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There have been at least eight published case reports in which V. metschnikovii was the causative organism of infection. Of these, only once (8) was there an attempt to identify the isolates with a commercial system, in this case the API 20E. The report suggested that the results were not reproducible and resulted in some incorrect identifications.
Three biogroups of V. vulnificus are recognized in the literature. Biogroup 1 is positive in tests for indole, ornithine decarboxylase, and fermentation of D-mannitol and negative for the fermentation of D-sorbitol. This biogroup is generally considered to be an opportunistic pathogen for humans after the ingestion of raw shellfish or contamination of a wound after exposure to seawater or handling of shellfish (3). Biogroup 2 is pathogenic for eels, the natural host for this biotype, but articles citing it as the causative agent in human infections as well have now appeared (3). It is negative in tests for indole, ornithine, and D-mannitol but positive for the fermentation of D-sorbitol. Biogroup 3 has been reported in the literature as having been isolated from wound infections and bacteremia (5). It is positive in tests for ornithine and indole but negative for D-mannitol and D-sorbitol fermentations. After the selection and testing of V. vulnificus isolates were completed, we realized that we had picked three isolates of biogroup 1 and seven isolates of biogroup 2. Because the CDC generally receives only those isolates that cause problems in identification, it is not unusual that our collection would include a large number of suspect biogroup 2 isolates. However, what is unusual is that the API 20E matrix has the indole reaction configured at 99% positive. All of our biogroup 2 isolates were positive for indole on the API 20E even though they were negative in our conventional Kovacs indole test. Four of these seven were correctly identified. No biogroup 3 strains were included in this study. However, Colodner et al. reported results obtained from testing 51 documented biogroup 3 strains in the ID-GNB card, which correctly identified 90.2% of the strains (R. Colodner, L. Lerner, J. Kopelowitz, I. Meir, Z. Lazarovich, Y. Keness, and R. Raz, Abstr. 12th Eur. Congr. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis., abstr. P637, 2002).
There are numerous case reports of V. vulnificus in the literature in which a commercial system was used for the initial identification of the organism. Bisharat and Raz (6) reported that only 12 of 25 V. vulnificus isolates from persons who had contact with fish were correctly identified with the API 20E. In 1999, Bisharat et al. further reported that 19 isolates of V. vulnificus from soft-tissue infections were identified as other genera by the API 20E (5). The authors indicated that the isolates were also tested in conventional MicroScan panels but did not report the identifications.
In 1993, Biosca et al. (4) tested 106 isolates in the API 20E system; however, they modified the manufacturer's directions so that the inoculum was made up in 0.85% NaCl and incubated at 25°C. Even with these alterations in the protocol, only 13 of 17 biotype 1 strains were identified correctly, with an accuracy of 76.5% with no additional tests. Of the 89 biotype 2 strains, none were identified correctly without additional tests. The investigators suggested that this finding was consistent with the database that was constructed with clinical strains. All of their biotype 2 strains were from diseased eels, the natural host for this biotype.
Abbott and Janda (1) reported on two cases of gastroenteritis associated with V. hollisae. In the first case, the API 20E misidentified the organism, which also failed to grow in a MicroScan conventional panel. In the second case, the API accurately identified the bacterium. As was discussed earlier, their isolates also failed to grow on MacConkey agar. Reina et al. (26) reported a case of gastroenteritis caused by V. alginolyticus, which was correctly identified by API 20E. Finally, Komarnicka et al. reported the first catheter site infection in a dialysis patient caused by V. cholerae non-O1, in which the organism was correctly identified by the API 20E (J. Komarnicka, A. Samet, E. Dziemaszkiewicz, and L. Maumiuk, Abstr. 11th Eur. Congr. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis., abstr. P1065, 2001).
In evaluations of the Vitek 2, Funke et al. (13) tested seven isolates of Vibrio spp. Two isolates each of V. cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus were correctly identified, while only one of three strains of V. alginolyticus was correctly identified. Jossart and Courcol (18), however, had one strain each of these same three organisms correctly identified in their study on the Vitek 2, and Ling et al. (20) reported that the result of one strain of V. vulnificus was deemed "unidentified."
In an evaluation of the Crystal E/NF by Holmes et al. (17), five strains each of V. cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus were tested. Four strains each were correctly identified, and one strain each gave "no identification." Robinson (27) had one strain of V. parahaemolyticus correctly identified.
Another potential problem that must be taken into consideration involves the identification of aeromonads as vibrios. Abbott et al. (2) addressed this problem and reported on isolates of Aeromonas schubertii and Aeromonas veronii that were identified as P. damselae (Vitek GNI+) and V. cholerae (API 20E), respectively.
While it is a recognized fact that cholera is a potentially devastating worldwide disease, most of the reports in the literature do not address the identification of the organism. In many cases, selective medium is used for the initial isolation and, once the organism is isolated, identification is confirmed serologically. In a review of V. cholerae, Kaper et al. (19) state that commercially available enteric identification systems are suitable for identifying V. cholerae. Based on the study reported here, we cannot agree with this statement. None of the systems tested in our study achieved an overall accuracy of
90% for the identification of Vibrio species. Only the Becton Dickinson Crystal E/NF achieved an accuracy level of
80%. The only product to correctly identify at least 90% of V. cholerae strains was the Crystal E/NF, and only three of the six products, the API 20E and both of the Vitek cards, correctly identified more than 90% of the V. parahaemolyticus strains.
This study has shown that only 20 of 48 of the organism-product combinations will yield an accurate identification. The overall accuracy of all systems with all species that are included in their databases is 72.1%, even though in an additional 15.2% of the cases a correct identification would have been given, but at a low probability requiring additional confirmatory testing. V. cholerae would have been identified accurately in only 74.4% of the tests. In conclusion, caution must be taken in the interpretation of answers from these six commercially available systems for the identification of Vibrio species, with additional confirmatory testing being required in many cases.
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