title: Comparative characterization of Acinetobacter strains isolated from different foods and clinical sources.
abstract: Eighty-three Acinetobacter strains from clinical sources, and 170 from various foods (including fresh and spoiled meat and fish, vegetables, raw milk and cheese) were identified according to recently improved taxonomy, using a computer-assisted probabilistic method based on phenotyping tests. Apart from some atypical characters, most of the strains (94%) were identified to belong to the genospecies or groups of genospecies described in the literature. Among our strains from hospitals, the A. calcoaceticus- A. baumannii complex predominated, whereas the strains isolated from food were predominated by genospecies 7 (A. johnsonii), followed by genospecies 8/9 (A. lwoffii). The isolates from clinical environments showed a major incidence of antibiotic resistance, haemolytic strains and strains producing polysaccharidic material.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ispezione degli Alimenti di Origine Animale, Facoltà di Medicinaria Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gennari
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lombardi
mesh_terms: D000150:Acinetobacter / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D014871:Water Microbiology