SCREENING OF STOOL SAMPLES FOR IDENTIFICATION OF VANCOMYCIN-RESISTANTENTEROCOCCUS ISOLATES SHOULD INCLUDE THE METHYL-ALPHA-D-GLUCOPYRANOSIDE TEST TO DIFFERENTIATE NONMOTILE ENTEROCOCCUS-GALLINARUM FROM ENTEROCOCCUS-FAECIUM
Cy. Turenne et al., SCREENING OF STOOL SAMPLES FOR IDENTIFICATION OF VANCOMYCIN-RESISTANTENTEROCOCCUS ISOLATES SHOULD INCLUDE THE METHYL-ALPHA-D-GLUCOPYRANOSIDE TEST TO DIFFERENTIATE NONMOTILE ENTEROCOCCUS-GALLINARUM FROM ENTEROCOCCUS-FAECIUM, Journal of clinical microbiology, 36(8), 1998, pp. 2333-2335
The methyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside (MDG) test has been shown to be sup
erior to motility testing in differentiating Enterococcus faecium from
E. gallinarum. In the present study, 33 vancomycin-resistant enteroco
ccus (VRE) isolates collected as part of a stool surveillance study we
re compared by using motility and MDG. Motility testing identified all
33 isolates as E. faecium, whereas MDG identified 11 of the 33 isolat
es as nonmotile E. gallinarum. The MDG results were confirmed by seque
ncing the 16S rDNA V6-to-V8 region. We conclude that the MDG test is a
necessary component of routine VRE screening.