[Differentiation of pathogenic clostridia from material collected in the field and of reference strains by means of biostatistical analysis of the quantitatively recorded metabolic fatty acid patterns of the agents (author's transl)].

34 reference and 9 exotic field strains of clostridia were analyzed by means of gas liquid chromatography (GLC) on their patterns of metabolic short chain fatty acids. To increase the number of criteria for the differentiation specimens were grown on pepton yeast medium with addition of 13 different carbohydrates and alcohols. Data of sequence and mean square space of GLC-peaks were stored in a data bank. With the SPSS discriminance analytical system the field strains were compared with the reference strains in order to classify field to reference strains. At the same time differences between reference strains of different origin were determined. C. novyi, C. histolyticum., C. sordellii, C. difficile, C. subterminale and C. sporogenes could be separated clearly from the C. chauvoei-, C. septicum- and the perfringens-group. Between different strains of C. chauvoei provided by several laboratories significant differences could be shown which make original classification doubtful. Similarities between the C. chauvoei- and the C. septicum-group do exist. Formerly C. perfringens type F is the sole type of C. perfringens which can be separated from the C. perfringens-group. There are similarities in fatty acid patterns between the C. chauvoei-, C. septicum-, and C. perfringens-group. Strains isolated from field cases of gas gangrene in Perú, Madagascar and Germany (Bavaria) were classified as completely different from the reference strains for Perú, partly similar to C. chauvoei for Madagascar, similar to C. chauvoei and C. septicum for Bavaria.