Lysine decarboxylase-negative Salmonella enterica serovar enteritidis: antibiotic susceptibility, phage and PFGE typing.

One hundred twenty Salmonella Enteritidis isolates collected from 1992 to 2005 in Nagasaki prefecture (65 isolates from 40 outbreak cases, 44 from sporadic diarrhea patients, and 11 from chicken-related products) were investigated by their antibiotic susceptibility profiles, phage typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing. Out of them, 18 were identified as lysine decarboxylase (LDC)-negative isolates, and 15 showed resistance toward streptomycin. Based on the PFGE typing, the isolates were classified into five clusters by UPGMA clustering method. Three LDC-negative isolates belonged to cluster A and were of phage type (PT) 4 and isolated between 2000 and 2004. Other 15 LDC-negative isolates belonged to cluster E. They were PT1, reacted but did not conform (RDNC), or untypable and were isolated between 2001 and 2004. LDC-negative isolates of the cluster A differed from LDC-negative isolates of the cluster E in antibiotic susceptibility profiles, phage typing, and PFGE typing. LDC-negative isolates of the cluster E were isolated after 2001 in Nagasaki prefecture.