RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SLIME PRODUCTION, ANTIBIOTIC-SENSITIVITY AND THEPHAGETYPE OF COAGULASE-NEGATIVE STAPHYLOCOCCI

Three hundred and three strains of coagulase-negative staphylococci (C NS) were collected from the fingers of healthy donors (289) and from b lood cultures (14). Twelve different species were identified (5 S. aur icularis, 45 S. capitis, 15 S. cohnii, 86 S. epidermidis, 23 S. haemol yticus, 37 S. hominis, 1 S. lentus, 5 S. saprophyticus, 7 S. sciuri, 6 S. simulans, 54 S. xylosus and 19 S. warneri). Amongst these CNS stra ins, 151 were slime producers, 112 were phage-typable and 188, 133, 12 6 and 91 were, respectively, resistant to penicillin, teicoplanin, ery thromicin and kanamycin. Slime-producing strains were resistant to at least seven antibiotics with a probability of 0.01 < P < 0.05. Non-sli me-producing strains were sensitive to all the tested antibiotics with a probability of 0.001 < P < 0.01. There was no direct relationship b etween antibiotic sensitivity and phage type, although a non-typable s train was more often resistant to seven or more antibiotics than a typ able one (0.05 < P < 0.1).