Abstract
Fifty-seven bacterial isolates previously identified as Bordetella avium or B. hinzii were characterized by restriction enzyme analysis (REA) and/or ribotyping. Twenty restriction endonucleases were evaluated for REA. Digestion of chromosomal DNA from the 42 B. avium and 15 B. hinzii isolates with HinfI produced 8 and 7 distinct fingerprint profiles, respectively. Digestion with DdeI further discriminated these Bordetella species and produced 12 fingerprint profiles for B. avium and 4 profiles of B. hinzii. In addition, B. avium isolates were clearly distinguishable from B. hinzii isolates by ribotyping with the restriction endonuclease PvuII. The ribotype patterns of these two species of Bordetella were unique when compared to previously reported ribotype patterns for B. bronchiseptica isolates. Since it was possible to discern differences among isolates within each Bordetella species by REA analysis, we suggest that REA could be used in developing a typing system based on the fingerprint profiles generated.