Use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus typing, and automated ribotyping to assess genomic variability among strains of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae

We compared 75 nontypeable (NT) Haemophilus influenzae isolates by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR, and automated ribotyping. PFGE was the most discriminatory of the techniques. ERIC-PCR provides a useful screen but should not replace other techniques as the sole method to group NT H. influenzae strains.