ANOMALOUS BUT HELPFUL FINDINGS FROM THE BBL CRYSTAL ID KIT WITH HAEMOPHILUS SPP

Fourteen strains of Haemophilus (12 H. influenzae, 1 H. parainfluenzae and 1 H. aphrophilus) were processed in BBL Crystal ID Enteric/Nonfer menter, API 20E and API 20NE kits, to determine whether the BBL kit mi sidentifies, as API kits may do, Haemophilus spp. as Pasteurella spp. The 13 H. influenzae and H. parainfluenzae strains produced uninterpre table colour reactions in the Crystal kit, thus signalling that an ina ppropriate species had been tested. On the other hand, the API kits (e specially 20NE) often confidently 'identified' Haemophilus spp. as Pas teurella spp., giving no warning that this was a misidentification.