Incidence of high-level evernimicin resistance in Enterococcus faecium among food animals and humans.
Six high-level evernimicin-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolates were identified among 304 avilamycin-resistant E. faecium isolates from animals and 404 stool samples from humans with diarrhea. All four animal isolates, and one of the human isolates, were able to transfer resistance to a susceptible E. faecium strain. The resulting transconjugants all tested positive for the presence of emtA, a gene encoding a methyltransferase previously linked with high-level evernimicin resistance. The four transconjugants derived from animal isolates all carried the same plasmid, while a differently sized plasmid was found in the isolate from humans. This study demonstrated a low incidence of high-level evernimicin resistance mediated by the emtA gene in different E. faecium isolates of animal and human origin.
Danish Veterinary Institute, DK-1790 Copenhagen V, Denmark. faa@vetinst.dk
Frank Møller
FM
Aarestrup
Paul M
PM
McNicholas
D000617:Aminoglycosides; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002417:Cattle; D002645:Chickens / Q000382:microbiology*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology; D004351:Drug Resistance; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008780:Methyltransferases / Q000235:genetics; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013552:Swine / Q000382:microbiology*
D000617:Aminoglycosides; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D009844:Oligosaccharides; C001202:evernimicin; C006653:avilamycin; D008780:Methyltransferases