Safety assessment of commercial Enterococcus probiotics in Korea.
There have been concerns about possible pathogenicity and antimicrobial resistance in Enterococcus, which constitute more than 50% of probiotics in the worldwide market. In this study, Enterococcus in sixteen products manufactured by ten different companies was tested for the presence of six virulence genes and two vancomycin resistance genes. Results in this study showed the safety of Enterococcus on the Korean market and the importance of screening vanA, vanB, agg, cylA, esp, and gelE. Pulse-field gel electrophoresis showed that the sixteen isolates tested in this study are originated from three strains.
Lee
Kieun
K
Culture Collection of Antimicrobial Resistant Microbes, Department of Biology, Seoul Women's University, Seoul 139-774, Korea.
Lee
Minyoung
M
Lee
Yeonhee
Y
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003257:Consumer Product Safety / Q000592:standards*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D005516:Food Microbiology; D007723:Korea; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D019936:Probiotics / Q000737:chemistry / Q000592:standards*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors