ABSTRACT
The isolation of several new brucellaphages during recent years has made phage typing a convenient technique for rapid identification of Brucella species. With the brucellaphages now available, the diagnostic bacteriologist can rapidly confirm the identity of an isolate as Brucella and in most cases can easily determine the species to which it belongs. This is a welcome advance, since only a limited number of the standard biochemical and physiological tests are useful for brucellae. The oxidative metabolic profiles on which definitive speciation depends are too difficult and hazardous to be used outside of reference laboratories.
