Microbial Contaminants of Cord Blood Units Identified by 16S rRNA Sequencing and by API Test System, and Antibiotic Sensitivity Profiling

Over a period of ten months a total of 5618 cord blood units (CBU) were screened for microbial contamination under routine conditions. The antibiotic resistance profile for all isolates was also examined using ATB strips. The detection rate for culture positive units was 7.5%, corresponding to 422 samples.16S rRNA sequence analysis and identification with API test system were used to identify the culturable aerobic, microaerophilic and anaerobic bacteria from CBUs. From these samples we recovered 485 isolates (84 operational taxonomic units, OTUs) assigned to the classes Bacteroidia, Actinobacteria, Clostridia, Bacilli, Betaproteobacteria and primarily to the Gammaproteobacteria. Sixty-nine OTUs, corresponding to 447 isolates, showed 16S rRNA sequence similarities above 99.0% with known cultured bacteria. However, 14 OTUs had 16S rRNA sequence similarities between 95 and 99% in support of genus level identification and one OTU with 16S rRNA sequence similarity of 90.3% supporting a family level identification only. The phenotypic identification formed 29 OTUs that could be identified to the species level and 9 OTUs that could be identified to the genus level by API test system. We failed to obtain identification for 14 OTUs, while 32 OTUs comprised organisms producing mixed identifications. Forty-two OTUs covered species not included in the API system databases. The API test system Rapid ID 32 Strep and Rapid ID 32 E showed the highest proportion of identifications to the species level, the lowest ratio of unidentified results and the highest agreement to the results of 16S rRNA assignments. Isolates affiliated to the Bacilli and Bacteroidia showed the highest antibiotic multi-resistance indices and microorganisms of the Clostridia displayed the most antibiotic sensitive phenotypes.