title: Occurrence of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes, and distribution of enterococcal clonal complex 17 from animals and human beings in Korea.
abstract: Enterococci are major zoonotic bacteria that cause opportunistic infections in human beings and animals. Moreover, pathogenic strains can be disseminated between human beings and animals, particularly companion animals that come into frequent contact with people. Recently, Enterococcus faecium clonal complex 17 (CC17) has emerged as a pandemic clone. Most CC17 strains are ampicillin resistant and possess virulence genes such as esp and hyl. Despite the possible dissemination of CC17 between human beings and animals, prevalence data about CC17 in animals is limited. In the present study, the phenotypes and genotypes of antimicrobial resistance were compared, as well as virulence gene profiles from 184 enterococci strains isolated from chickens, pigs, companion animals, and human patients in Korea. Ampicillin-resistant E. faecium (AREF) strains were selected, and multilocus sequence typing was performed to investigate the dispersion of CC17 among animals and human beings. The companion animal and human isolates showed high resistance rates to ampicillin and ciprofloxacin, whereas food animal isolates showed high tetracycline and erythromycin resistance rates. Ampicillin-resistant E. faecium was only detected in human (21/21 E. faecium, 100%) and companion animal (3/5 E. faecium, 60%) isolates, and all human AREF strains and 1 canine AREF strain were confirmed as CC17. In conclusion, the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes, and the distribution of enterococcal CC17 in companion animal enterococcal strains were similar to those of human strains rather than to those of food animal strains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Brain Korea 21 Program for Veterinary Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ka Hee
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Sun Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Bo Youn
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Young Kyung
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sook
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Cheol-Yong
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Yong Ho
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D006801:Humans; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D056910:Republic of Korea; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents