Enterobacter asburiae was the name proposed recently by Brenner et al. As the phenotypic characteristics of this species are similar to those of Enterobacter cloacae, it seems that clinical isolates of this species have been misidentified with the latter species in routine diagnostic work.
When 150 isolates from clinical specimens which had been identified as E. cloacae were reexamined using 38 physiological and biochemical tests, 7 strains were found to be E. asburiae. Biochemical characteristics of the 7 strains conformed to the description of E. asburiae by Brenner et al., with the exception of Voges-Proskauer reaction. Brenner et al. reported that the majority of their strains were negative in the Voges-Proskauer test. However, all the 7 strains studied here were positive by the Voges-Proskauer test. It seemed that discrepancies of the results in this feature was due to difference of media and methodology emplyoed.
Although significance of 6 of the 7 strains in the clinical specimens from which they were isolated were uncertain, its presence in one blood culture at least suggested clinical significance.