Use of Variations in Staphylococcal Interspersed Repeat Units for Molecular Typing of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains

Staphylococcal interspersed repeat unit typing has previously been shown to have the ability to discriminate between epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains in the United Kingdom. The current study illustrates its ability to distinguish between strains within an endemic setting thereby providing a rapid transportable typing method for the identification of transmission events.