RIBOTYPING AND DNA MACRORESTRICTION ANALYSIS OF ISOLATES OF BURKHOLDERIA-PSEUDOMALLEI FROM CASES OF MELIOIDOSIS IN MALAYSIA

Forty-nine isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei from sporadic cases o f melioidosis in Malaysia over the past 18 years were examined by BamH I ribotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of XbaI diges ts of total deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Twenty-four patients had sept icaemic melioidosis with a mortality of 70%; mortality in the non-sept icaemic disease was 16%. Five ribotype patterns were identified, 2 of which accounted for 90% of all isolates. PFGE revealed a number of dif ferent strains within these ribotypes, but some pairs of isolates from unrelated cases gave closely similar DNA profiles. These results are in agreement with Australian studies which showed a high prevalence of a few ribotypes of B. pseudomallei which are further divisible by gen otyping, in areas where melioidosis is endemic.