Camille Elliott - Department of Para- Clinical Sciences, Pathology and Microbiology Unit, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Eric Williams Medical Complex, Mt. Hope Hospital, Champs Fleurs, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.
Angel Vaillant - Department of Para- Clinical Sciences, Pathology and Microbiology Unit, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Eric Williams Medical Complex, Mt. Hope Hospital, Champs Fleurs, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.

Background: Serratia marcescens is a gram-negative bacterium from family of Enterobacteriaceae. It is a human pathogen that is involved in nosocomial infection outbreaks that have proven difficult to manage. PCR-based techniques are suitable given the genus. Serratia has a higher GC content than many other members of the Enterobacteriaceae. The ERIC PCR-based fingerprinting method was used to study the PCR patterns of clinical Serratia marcescens isolates and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. Methods: Surveillance was conducted for nosocomial cases of interest and the nosocomial pathogens were retrieved for identification via morphological and additional biochemical tests. Additionally, antimicrobial susceptibility tests and ERIC Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based fingerprinting molecular method was done on the clinical S. marcescens isolates. Results: From the study, five different strains of the clinical Serratia marcescens isolates were recovered and similarly five distinct susceptibility patterns were observed from the clinical S. marcescens isolates indicating consistency in the number of strains present in the clinical S. marcescens isolates. Conclusions: ERIC PCR fingerprinting base technique; a simple, rapid and cheap method for the determination of genetic relatedness between Serratia marcescens isolates can be applied for the thorough evaluation of nosocomial outbreaks to detect the source of infection and control the spreading of the infection.

ERIC PCR-based fingerprinting method, Serratia marcescens, Antimicrobials, Antibiotic Resistance