IDENTIFICATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL STAPHYLOCOCCI AND COLIFORMS BY THE VITEK-AUTO-MICROBIC-SYSTEM

The Vitek Auto Microbic System (AIMS) automated identification device was used in rapid identification of staphylococci and coliforms origin ating from food factory environments. From a total of 3324 isolates, a n average of 76% were identified with a confidence > 50% (staphylococc i: 61% coliforms: 82%). AMS identifications of presumed staphylococci did not match well (24%) with ATB 32 STAPH identifications, but colifo rms matched for 80% of the isolates compared with the API 20 E system. The differences observed between the AMS and ATB 32 STAPH in identifi cations could be due to inadequate isolation media, insufficient isola te purification, incorrect pre-screening of isolates or an incompetent AMS database. For coliforms, the overall performance proved sufficien t for rapid screening of isolates from food factory bacterial ecology studies.