Use of colony morphology to distinguish different enterococcal strains and species in mixed culture from clinical specimens

Abstract

Colony morphology on kanamycin esculin azide agar was investigated as a means of selecting different species and strains of enterococci from clinical specimens. Four representative colonies of each morphotype were indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, biotype, and antibiogram analysis. The optimum time for identification of different colony morphotypes was 72 h.