Development of Parameters for Brucella Identification on Commercial Systems

Abstract

Brucella is very difficult to identify and characterize. This study defined parameters for better use of three commercial systems. MIDI Sherlock Microbial Identification System®, the Biolog OmniLog®, and the DuPont Qualicon RiboPrinter® systems were evaluated for their capability of identifying 36 Brucella reference strains and clinical isolates. Currently, there are no existing commercial identification systems able to complete an identification of Brucella very effectively at the species and biovar level, nor do they include species from marine isolates or B. neotomae. MIDI, Biolog, and. RiboPrinter were generally capable of genus identification of all the currently known Brucella including the newer species of Brucella cell, Brucella neotomae, and Brucella pinnipedialis. Common misidentifications were encountered using each instrument and the results of this investigation provide viable data to reduce false positive identifications of these dangerous pathogens by defining parameters.