Background & objectives: Taxonomy of Acinetobacter has been changing ever since it was recognized to be associated with human infections. Many biochemical schemes and molecular methods have been used for the species identification of this bacterium. Recently a simple molecular method called amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) has been used to determine the genomospecies of ACINETOBACTER: An attempt is made in the present study to identify the Acinetobacter genomospecies isolated from clinical specimens using ARDRA and to see whether the environmental isolates are similar to those obtained from clinical specimens.
Methods: A total of 142 consecutive isolates of Acinetobacter sp. obtained from different clinical specimens (125) and environmental samples (17) of postoperative neurosurgery-intensive care unit were studied using ARDRA. Amplification was done using primers of 16S rRNA gene followed by restriction with Alu I, Cfo I and Mbo I enzymes separately to obtain a profile of patterns specific for a species.
Results: Of the 125 clinical isolates, 107 were Acinetobacter baumannii (genomospecies 2) and 18 were A. calcoaceticus (genomospecies 1); while 11 of the 17 environmental isolates were A. baumannii and 6 had unidentifiable patterns which were not found in the clinical isolates.
Interpretation & conclusion: We found that ARDRA was a simple and reproducible method to be used in a clinical laboratory for identification of Acinetobacter species. A. baumannii was found to be the commonest species isolated from the patients and environment in our hospital. The presence of the same species of Acinetobacter in the environment suggests the role of environment as a source of infection to the patients in high risk units.