Bacteriophage Typing of Mycobacterium Ranae (Fortuitum). The Use of Unadapted and Adapted Phages in the Development of a Typing System

Mycobacterium ranae has been used as an experimental model to investigate the feasibility of developing a phage typing system for the subdivision of a mycobacterial species. Typing by means of unadapted phages was of limited value whereas, for one group of strains, a highly discriminative set of adapted phages was produced. The eleven phages used in the study were divisible into four groups, one consisting of three phages from pseudolysogenic strains. Two other groups have been named the Tara and Penso groups, respectively. Two hitherto undescribed phages have been isolated and designated Mx1 and Mx2.