An outbreak of meningitis due to Citrobacter koseri in a special care baby unit is described. The organism showed a high capacity for spread among the babies on the unit and although the intestinal carriage rate was high, the clinical case:carrier ratio was low.

A total of 378 isolates of the family Enterobacteriaceae were tested with conventional biochemical tests and with the Spectrum-10 identification system. Of these, 97.4% were correctly identified to the species level by using the seven-digit profile of Spectrum-10. The preliminary four-digit profile provided the correct species for 61.1% and the correct genus for 79.4% of the strains. Most misid...

* Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biomediche e di Biometria, Cattedre di Chimica Biologica e Biologia Molecolare, Localita Collemaggio, 1-67 100 L'Aquila, Italy, t Laboratoire d'Enzymologie et Service de Microbiologie, Universite de Liege Institut de Chimie, B6, B-4000 Sart Tilman (Liege), Belgium, and I Rijksuniversiiteit-Gent Laboratorium voor Microbiol...

The characteristics of 25 hydrogen sulfide-negative strains of Citrobacter were studied. The majority of isolates were from the respiratory tract and usually were of indeterminate clinical significance. All strains were highly susceptible to polymyxin B, gentamicin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, and nitrofurantoin.

The ability of a bacterial population to survive in different niches, as well as in stressful and rapidly changing environmental conditions, depends greatly on its genetic content. To survive such fluctuating conditions, bacteria have evolved different mechanisms to modulate phenotypic variations and related strategies to produce high levels of genetic diversity. Laboratories working in microbi...

BACKGROUND Symbiotic bacteria affect insect physiology and ecology. They may also mediate insecticide resistance within their hosts and thereby impact pest and vector control practices. Here, we document a novel mechanism of insecticide resistance in which a gut symbiont of the tephritid pest fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis enhances resistance to the organophosphate insecticide trichlorphon. RE...