title: Human and swine hosts share vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium CC17 and CC5 and Enterococcus faecalis CC2 clonal clusters harboring Tn1546 on indistinguishable plasmids.
abstract: VRE isolates from pigs (n = 29) and healthy persons (n = 12) recovered during wide surveillance studies performed in Portugal, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States (1995 to 2008) were compared with outbreak/prevalent VRE clinical strains (n = 190; 23 countries; 1986 to 2009). Thirty clonally related Enterococcus faecium clonal complex 5 (CC5) isolates (17 sequence type 6 [ST6], 6 ST5, 5 ST185, 1 ST147, and 1 ST493) were obtained from feces of swine and healthy humans. This collection included isolates widespread among pigs of European Union (EU) countries since the mid-1990s. Each ST comprised isolates showing similar pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns (≤6 bands difference; >82% similarity). Some CC5 PFGE subtype strains from swine were indistinguishable from hospital vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) causing infections. A truncated variant of Tn1546 (encoding resistance to vancomycin) and tcrB (coding for resistance to copper) were consistently located on 150- to 190-kb plasmids (rep(pLG1)). E. faecium CC17 (ST132) isolates from pig manure and two clinical samples showed identical PFGE profiles and contained a 60-kb mosaic plasmid (rep(Inc18) plus rep(pRUM)) carrying diverse Tn1546-IS1216 variants. The only Enterococcus faecalis isolate obtained from pigs (CC2-ST6) corresponded to a multidrug-resistant clone widely disseminated in hospitals in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and both animal and human isolates harbored an indistinguishable 100-kb mosaic plasmid (rep(pRE25) plus rep(pCF10)) containing the whole Tn1546 backbone. The results indicate a current intra- and international spread of E. faecium and E. faecalis clones and their plasmids among swine and humans.
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Laboratório de Microbiologia, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Freitas
authors.forename: Teresa M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Coque
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Novais
authors.forename: Anette M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hammerum
authors.forename: Camilla H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lester
authors.forename: Marcus J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zervos
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Donabedian
authors.forename: Lars B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Maria Victoria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Francia
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baquero
authors.forename: Luísa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peixe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005062:European Union; D005838:Genotype; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000662:veterinary*; D006801:Humans; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058889:Molecular Typing; D010957:Plasmids; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D014481:United States; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial