TABLE 1.
Collection | Collection code(s)a | Geographic originb | No. of strains | Original purpose for strain collection in this study | Description of collections | Reference(s) or source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | United States (CDC)a | 59 | Multicenter collection of MRSA (63%) and MSSA (37%) strains | 35 | ||
2 | Portugal | 184 | Nationwide disseminated MRSA strains from hospitals | 1 | ||
3 | Worldwide | 66 | Generation of strain-specific DNA probes | Worldwide collection of MRSA strains | 20 | |
4 | Italy | 49 | Genetically unrelated MRSA strains (determined by PFGE), isolated from hospitalized patients (five centers), Sicily, Italy | 41 | ||
5 | Australia | 18 | Genetically unrelated MRSA strains (determined by PFGE), obtained from four different hospitals | 41 | ||
6 | K2 | United States | 26 | Determination of discriminatory power of the genotyping methods (see Table 4) | Community-acquired MRSA strains | 46 |
7 | SA, SB, SC | United States (CDC) | 14 | Selection of geographically diverse strains from collection 1 | 35 | |
8 | NC | The Netherlands | 10 | Stability experiment for binary typing probes (see Table 3) | Strains isolated from persistant nasal carriers | 43 |
9 | RIVM | The Netherlands | 2 | Selection of 1 MRSA strain (Va) and 1 MSSA strain (Ia), from collection no. 10 | ||
10 | RIVM | The Netherlands | 49 | Epidemiological applications of the diverse genotyping systems (see Table 5) | MRSA and MSSA strains from 10 outbreaks in 10 Dutch hospitals | This study |
11 | United Kingdom (NCTC) | 2 | Mapping of the strain-specific DNA probes (see Fig. 1) | S. aureus NCTC 8325 and 8325-4 | 27, 29 |
K2, community-acquired MRSA strains from a New York City hospital; SA, SB, SC, S. aureus strains from the CDC collection; NC, nasal carrier; RIVM, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (Bilthoven, The Netherlands).
CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; NCTC, National Collection of Type Cultures (Central Public Health Laboratory, London, United Kingdom).