Isolation, distribution and prevalence of various species of enterococci isolated from clinical specimens in a tertiary care hospital

Various clinical specimens were processed to find the prevalence rate of enterococci and to identify the species of clinical isolates of enterococci. Screening of various clinical specimens revealed that enterococci were prevalent in 2% of the total specimens, with urine and wound to be the major site of isolation. Conventional test scheme proposed by Facklam and Collins and commercially available systems Rapid ID 32 Strep (biomereiux) were successfully used to speciate enterococcal strains. Five species of enterococci were identified in the study from a set of 396 cultures, with E. faecalis (79.79%), and E. faecium (11.11%) predominating. E. hirae (3.03%), E. gallinarum (3.03%), and E. casseliflavus (3.03%), were the other members of Enterococcus species identified.