Recent cases of infections caused by glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (GRE) have highlighted the emergence of these organisms in the Republic of South Africa. During May 1998 we conducted a prevalence study in four hospitals in Johannesburg and obtained 184 rectal swabs from patients identified as being at high risk for GRE colonization. Twenty enterococcal isolates showing various glycopepti...

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 enterococci (VRE) have caused hospital outbreaks worldwide, and the vancomycin-resistance gene (vanA) has crossed genus boundaries to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Spread of VRE, therefore, represents an immediate threat for patient care and creates a reservoir of mobile resistance genes for other, more virulent pathogens. Evolutionary genetics, population st...

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), produced by various Clostridium strains, are a family of potent bacterial toxins and potential bioterrorism agents. Here we report that an Enterococcus faecium strain isolated from cow feces carries a BoNT-like toxin, designated BoNT/En. It cleaves both VAMP2 and SNAP-25, proteins that mediate synaptic vesicle exocytosis in neurons, at sites distinct from known Bo...

Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium are common inhabitants of the human gastrointestinal tract, as well as frequent opportunistic pathogens. Enterococci cause a range of infections including, most frequently, infections of the urinary tract, catheterized urinary tract, bloodstream, wounds and surgical sites, and heart valves in endocarditis. Enterococcal infections are often biofilm-...

Fragments (414 bp) of the gene-encoding ribosomal protein L16 from Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis that were resistant and susceptible to the oligosaccharide antibiotics avilamycin and evernimicin (SCH 27899) were sequenced and compared. The susceptible E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates had sequences that were similar to those of the type strains. All resistant E. faecalis isol...

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...

VanD-type Enterococcus faecium BM4416 was constitutively resistant to vancomycin and to teicoplanin by synthesis of peptidoglycan precursors ending in D-alanyl-D-lactate. Like E. faecium BM4339, the only VanD-type strain described so far, BM4416 produced an impaired D-alanine:D-alanine ligase. Unlike for BM4339, which had a 5-bp insertion in ddl, inactivation of the gene in BM4416 was due to in...

To determine the prevalence of indicator bacteria resistant to antimicrobials among poultry in three Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand), we examined the antimicrobial susceptibilities of commensal bacteria isolated from chickens. In total, 125, 117 and 180 isolates of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, respectively, were used to test for a...

The complete sequence (1,479 nucleotides) of msrC, part of which was recently reported by others using a different strain, was determined. This gene was found in 233 of 233 isolates of Enterococcus faecium but in none of 265 other enterococci. Disruption of msrC was associated with a two- to eightfold decrease in MICs of erythromycin azithromycin, tylosin, and quinupristin, suggesting that it m...