Frequent clonal strains such as the Australian Epidemic Strain-1 (AES-1), have increased ability to establish infection in the CF lung and to superimpose and replace infrequent clonal strains.
The Australian epidemic strain-1 (AES-1) (or the Melbourne epidemic strain) and AES-2 are common in CF clinics in mainland eastern Australia, but not in the environment.
We used PCR to evaluate the distribution of several of the AES-I loci amongst a collection of 188 P. aeruginosa isolates which was comprised of 35 AES-I isolates (as determined by PFGE), 78 non-AES-ICF isolates including other epidemic CF strains as well as 69 P. aeruginosa isolates from other clinical and environmental sources.
A genotypically indistinguishable strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Australian epidemic strain III: AES III) has previously been found in a proportion of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) in Tasmania, Australia.