Escherichia coliflagellar serotyping is as reliable as it has always been!

Abstract

In a recent paper in this Journal by Marshallet al.(1985), which described the bacterial endonuclease DNA analysis (BRENDA) of severalEscherichia coli0126 strains, the following statement was found in the summary: ‘The isolates from the outbreak produced indistinguishable DNA electrophoretic patterns in spite of their assignment to seven different H serotypes… These results support the epidemiological evidence that a single-strain outbreak had occurred, and they cast doubt on the value of H typing for this particular investigation.’ The same 0126 strains that were enterotoxigenic (ST) were treated in two earlier papers (Bettelheim & Reeve, 1982; Bettelheim, 1984) and also on these two earlier occasions the authors raised doubt about the stability ofE. coliH typing results.