BACKGROUND An increase in the incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile-associated disease in Québec and the United States has been associated with a hypervirulent strain referred to as North American pulsed-field type 1 (NAP1)/027. METHODS In 2005, a prospective study was conducted in 88 Québec hospitals, and 478 consecutive nosocomial isolates of C. difficile were obtained. The isolat...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of 35 resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates to a quaternary ammonium hospital disinfectant. The methodology was the AOAC Use-Dilution Test, with disinfectant at its use-concentration. In addition, the chromosomal DNA profile of the isolates were determined by macro-restriction pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method ai...

We report on inapparent infections in adult/commercial tilapia in major tilapia fish farms in Guangdong. A total of 146 suspected isolates were confirmed to be S. agalactiae using an API 20 Strep system and specific PCR amplification. All isolates were identified as serotype Ia using multiplex serotyping PCR. An MLST assay showed single alleles of adhP (10), atr (2), glcK (2), glnA (1), pheS (1...

Traditionally, the capsular polysaccharide (CPS) antigen has been used to distinguish between the nine known serotypes of group B streptococcus (GBS) by classical antibody-antigen reactions. In this study, we used PCR for all CPSs and selected protein antigens, multilocus sequencing typing (MLST), and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to molecularly characterize 92 clinical isolates ident...

A total of 225 isolates of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium from food-producing animals collected between 2003 and 2007 were examined for the prevalence of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) determinants, namely qnrA, qnrB, qnrC, qnrD, qnrS, qepA and aac(6')Ib-cr, in Japan. Two isolates (0.8%) of S. Typhimurium DT104 from different dairy cows on a single farm in 2006 and 2007 w...

A study was conducted to assess the diversity among fecal Escherichia coli from healthy lactating cattle. E. coli (n = 100) isolates from 10 healthy lactating dairy cows of a Pennsylvania dairy herd were examined for phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Results revealed 26, 58, 10, and 6 E. coli isolates belonged to phylogenetic groups A, B1, B2, and D respectively. Overall, 63 serotypes, ...

We studied a collection of 79 colistin-resistant Escherichia coli isolates isolated from diseased pigs in France between 2009 and 2013. We determined a number of phenotypic and genetic characters using broth microdilution to characterize their antimicrobial susceptibility. We performed pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to assess their genetic diversity and assign them to phylogroups. High-...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) places among major opportunistic nosocomial pathogen which has developed extensive drug resistance. Due to uncontrolled consumption of antibiotics, multidrug-resistant (MDR) P. species are increasingly isolated from various settings hospitals globally. This research aimed determine the genes reproducing blaOXA-48, blaIMP-1, blaVIM-1 and blaNDM-1 metallo be...

AIMS The prevalence, level of contamination and epidemiological profile of Listeria monocytogenes were investigated in two meat-producing plants during a 20-month period. METHODS AND RESULTS Sampling for L. monocytogenes was carried out in a cattle slaughterhouse (n = 72) and a swine meat-processing plant (n = 68) during a 20-month period. Swabs and food samples were analysed with the most pr...