Abstract
Phage typing was performed on 452 strains of Staphylococcus aureus Iso-fated from diseased or apparently healthy chickens and from air samples in poultry houses.By use of 26 phages of the International Series, 260 (57.5%) of 452 strains were typed.On the other hand, four adapted phages (CHAT, CHA2, CHA3 and CHA4) were estabIished from phages 3A, 3C and 75 of the International Series, and their usefulness fortyping of chicken staphylococci was evaluated. As a result, 336 (74.3%) of 452 strains testedwere successfully typed with one or more of the four adapted phages, 284 strains at routinetest dilution (RTD) and 336 strains at 100 RTD. About 70% of strains untypable by thephages of the International Series were lysed by one or more of the adapted phages. The336 typable strains were differentiated into 13 phage patterns. The phages seemed to behighly specific to chicken staphylococci, because they lysed only a few strains of animalorigin other than chicken strains. Thus, the 4 phages newly established were found to bevery useful for typing of chicken strains.
