FREQUENCY OF ISOLATION OF PORPHYROMONAS SPECIES FROM INFECTED-DOG ANDCAT BITE WOUNDS IN HUMANS AND THEIR CHARACTERIZATION BY BIOCHEMICAL TESTS AND ARBITRARILY PRIMED-POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION FINGERPRINTING

We isolated 40 strains of Porphyromonas (formerly Bacteroides) species from 29 of 102 cat and dog bite wounds in humans. P. salivosa, P.ging ivalis, and P.canoris were the most frequent isolates. A comparison of the RapID ANA II system (Innovative Diagnostic Systems, Norcross, GA) , An-IDENT panels (bioMerieux, St. Louis), and APIZYM strips (bioMerie ux) showed that the latter kit best characterized these isolates becau se it included tests for trypsin and chymotrypsin activity; however, t he tests for glycosidase activity in this kit were less sensitive than were those in the other kits. None of the biochemical systems was abl e to identify all species. Arbitrarily primed-polymerase chain reactio n fingerprinting with a nonspecific single primer, T3B, yielded distin ct profiles for type strains and for the clinical isolates, suggesting that some of the isolates represented previously undescribed species. Growth of these species took greater than or equal to 5 days; therefo re, laboratories should incubate anaerobic plates from bite wound cult ures for greater than or equal to 7 days to assure isolation of these common pathogens.