Practical physiological schema for the identification of Herellea vaginicola and its differentiation from similar organisms.

A seven-test schema is presented that will identify Herellea vaginicola and differentiate it from Mima, Moraxella, and other gram-negative organisms whose biochemical reactions are similar to those of Herellea. Of 133 cultures examined, 49 were Herellea strains accurately identified by this schema: 34 of the 49 cultures were the capsular type strains of Herellea and 15 strains were from a group of 53 ATCC cultures listed under several different taxons. The remaining 84 non-Herellea cultures yielded 4 (4.7%) false positive identifications for Herellea; two were from a selected group of organisms (EO-1) whose taxonomic position is undetermined and two were Klebsiella ozaenae. Since neither of these groups is frequently encountered in clinical specimens, from a practical viewpoint they present no particular problem in the identification of Herellea. We recommend the use of the seven tests as described in this paper as a routine procedure for the identification of H. vaginicola.