Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with
Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) pulmonary infections have high morbidity
and mortality. The aim of this study was to compare different methods for identification of Bcc species isolated from
paediatric CF patients. Oropharyngeal swabs from children with CF were used to obtain isolates of Bcc samples
to evaluate six different tests for strain identification. Conventional (CPT) and automatised (APT) phenotypic tests,
polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-
recA, restriction fragment length polymorphism-
recA,
recA sequencing, and
matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) were applied. Bacterial isolates were also
tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. PCR-
recA analysis showed that 36 out of the 54 isolates were Bcc. Kappa
index data indicated almost perfect agreement between CPT and APT, CPT and PCR-
recA, and APT and PCR-
recA
to identify Bcc, and MALDI-TOF and
recA sequencing to identify Bcc species. The
recA sequencing data and the
MALDI-TOF data agreed in 97.2% of the isolates. Based on
recA sequencing, the most common species identified
were
Burkholderia cenocepacia
IIIA (33.4%),
Burkholderia vietnamiensis
(30.6%),
B. cenocepacia IIIB (27.8%),
Burkholderia multivorans
(5.5%), and
B. cepacia (2.7%). MALDI-TOF proved to be a useful tool for identification of
Bcc species obtained from CF patients, although it was not able to identify
B. cenocepacia subtypes.
