Activity and Characteristics of a New Staphylococcus Phage 94 1

Abstract

Summary

Staphylococcus phage 94, formerly designated WH-1, was found to type 119 (13.2%) of 900 clinical isolates which were untypable with the basic series of typing phages. Strains typed by this phage were uniformly resistant to penicillin, ampicillin, and colymycin. A lytic spectrum for phage 94 is presented and the phage is shown to be antigenically related to the group A staphylococcus phages. Morphologically, phage 94 has an oval, elongated head (95 × 55 nm), a tail length of 310 nm, and a density of 1.471 g/cm³.

The authors wish to thank Mr. Edward Chevalier, Mr. James Mitchell, and Sgt. Richard Aluisa for their valuable technical assistance. A special note of thanks is due to Dr. A. E. Asheshov, Staphylococcus Reference Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale, London, England, for generously sharing laboratory data on phage 94 and for her most helpful suggestions during the investigation of this new phage type.