The genomic identification of Colombian Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates by RFLP-PCR analysis of the 16S-23S rRNA gene spacer region

The 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacer (ITS) was analysed by RFLP in this study to identify A. baumannii from 139 isolates from four hospitals (identified as A, B, C and D). One hundred and twenty of these isolates (86.3%) belonged to the A. baumannii species; those identified as being A. baumannii were found to be polyclonal (19 clone groups) when determining the genetic relationships, 16 of them being found in hospital C. Hospitals A, B and D shared two clone groups isolated during different years. This study describes a rapid and easy method for genospecies identification of Acinetobacter baumannii.