International collaborative evaluation of the ATB 32 staph gallery for identification of the Staphylococcus species.

This international collaborative study evaluates a new system (ATB 32 Staph) for the identification of staphylococci taking into account the new novobiocin-sensitive and -resistant species reported. This study involved eight laboratories and 792 strains were tested. The reproducibility obtained for the cumulative results of the inter- and intra-laboratory tests was more than 90%. For 713 strains relevant of a species 95.5% were correctly identified by the system. Eight strains (1.2%) were misidentified and 24 strains (3.3%) were not identified. For 79 strains initially considered as not-classified, 62% were identified at the species level by the new system. The newer ATB 32 Staph gallery is a performant and useful method for routine identification of the currently described staphylococci species from clinical and animal origin.