title: Occurrence of an environmental Acinetobacter baumannii strain similar to a clinical isolate in paleosol from Croatia.
abstract: Over the past decade, bacteria of the genus Acinetobacter have emerged as a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Outbreaks of Acinetobacter infections are considered to be caused exclusively by contamination and transmission in hospital environments. The natural habitats of clinically important multiresistant Acinetobacter spp. remain to be defined. In this paper, we report an incidental finding of a viable multidrug-resistant strain of Acinetobacter baumannii, related to clinical isolates, in acid paleosol from Croatia. The environmental isolate of A. baumannii showed 87% similarity to a clinical isolate originating from a hospital in this geographic area and was resistant to gentamicin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, and levofloxacin. In paleosol, the isolate was able to survive a low pH (3.37), desiccation, and a high temperature (50°C). The probable source of A. baumannii in paleosol is illegally disposed waste of external origin situated in the abandoned quarry near the sampling site. The bacteria could have been leached from waste by storm water and thus infiltrated the paleosol.
authors.affiliation: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Division of Biology, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Jasna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hrenovic
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Durn
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Goic-Barisic
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kovacic
mesh_terms: D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017523:Croatia; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny