PCR-based DNA fingerprinting was used to characterize 48 clinical isolates of Yersinia enterocolitica. The samples were examined by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR) and inter-repeat PCR (IR-PCR). IR-PCR with two enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus primers resulted in patterns which were poorly discriminated; 2 of 11 arbitrary primers (RAPD-PCR) provided sufficient discriminatory power. In comparisons with serotyping and biotyping, RAPD-fingerprinting was the most discriminatory technique and may therefore be a valuable epidemiological tool for the study of Y. enterocolitica infections.