Evaluation of an automated system for identification of Enterobacteriaceaeand nonfermenting bacilli

The performance of the Vitek 2 (bioMerieux, France), a new fully automated system allowing rapid identification of microorganisms and susceptibility t esting, and the Vitek 2 ID-GNB card (bioMerieux) was evaluated using 502 cl inical isolates and stock collection strains of gram-negative rods belongin g to 70 taxa, The number of isolates correctly identified to species and ge nus levels was 430 (85.7%) and 485 (96.6%), respectively. Clinical isolates of both Enterobacteriaceae and non-Enterobacteriaceae were better identifi ed at the species level (95.3% and 74%, respectively) than stock collection strains (86.4% and 52.2%. respectively). The Vitek 2 ID-GNB card provides after 3 h a highly acceptable level of accuracy for identification of Enter obacteriaceae and non-Enterobacteriaceae, including most atypical strains e ncountered in clinical situations.