The enterococcal community from feces of seven dogs treated with antibiotics for 2-9 days in the veterinary intensive care unit (ICU) was characterized. Both, culture-based approach and culture-independent 16S rDNA amplicon 454 pyrosequencing, revealed an abnormally large enterococcal community: 1.4±0.8×10(8) CFU gram(-1) of feces and 48.9±11.5% of the total 16,228 sequences, respectively. The ...

A nationwide antimicrobial resistance surveillance has been conducted since 1997 in Korea. In this study, susceptibility test data generated in 2004 by KONSAR group hospitals were analyzed and compared to those at a commercial laboratory. In hospitals, the rank orders of organisms in 2004 were identical to those in 2003. The most prevalent species was Staphylococcus aureus (20.2%) in hospitals,...

OBJECTIVES The impact of agricultural use of antimicrobials on the present and future efficacy of therapeutic drugs in human medicine is a growing public concern. Quinupristin/dalfopristin has been approved to treat human disease caused by vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and is related to virginiamycin, a streptogramin complex that has long been used in USA agriculture poultry product...

Twenty-eight quinupristin-dalfopristin-resistant isolates of Enterococcus faecium from hospital patients and nonhuman sources in European countries were studied. High-level resistance (MICs, >/=32 microg/ml) was associated with the presence of vat(E) (satG) (14 isolates ¿50%) or vat(D) (satA) (6 isolates ¿21%). These genes were not detected in eight (29%) isolates with lower levels of quinupris...

The first clinical isolate of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp. in Hacettepe University Children's Hospital was isolated from a blood culture of a patient hospitalized in the intensive care unit. He had been on vancomycin therapy for the last four months for consecutive pneumoniae and sepsis. The isolate was identified as Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) and minimal inhibitor concentratio...

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium and E. durans isolates with the genotype vanA were detected in 7 of 118 faecal samples (5.9%) of natural gilthead seabream recovered off the coast of Portugal, and one vancomycin-resistant isolate/sample was further characterized. The genes erm(B), tet(L), tet(M), aac(6')-aph(2"), aph(3')-IIIa and/or ant(6)-Ia were identified in most of the...

The vanC1 gene, which is chromosomally located, confers resistance to vancomycin and serves as a species marker for Enterococcus gallinarum. Enterococcus faecium TJ4031 was isolated from a blood culture and harbours the vanC1gene. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were performed to detect vanXYc and vanTc genes. Only the vanXYc gene was found in the E. faecium TJ4031 isolate. The minimum i...

OBJECTIVES To determine the fitness effects of various mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis when newly acquired. We also tested the hypothesis that the biological cost of vancomycin resistance plasmids could be mitigated during continuous growth in the laboratory. METHODS Different MGEs, including two conjugative transposons (CTns) of the Tn916 fami...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in urinary isolates in North America, and the activity of various antibiotics against VRE. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-eight medical centres in the United States and 10 centres in Canada assessed the prevalence of VRE in urinary isolates in 2002. Each study site was asked to collect up...

In this study the distribution of species and antimicrobial resistance among vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) recovered from clinical specimens obtained from five hospitals in Belgrade was analyzed. Strains were further characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to investigate the presence of vanA and vanB genes and pathogenicity fac...