Isolation of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci from Animal Faeces, Detection of Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and Vancomycin Resistant Genes

Abstract

Infections caused by Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) are important in human medicine in terms of treatment difficulties. Molecular studies in the last years revealed that VRE occurrence in animals might be important in epidemiology of infections in human. This study aims to detect VRE occurrence in various animals, examine antibiotic resistance profiles phenotypically, and determine the distribution of the vancomycin resistant genes, vanA, vanB, vacC1, vanC2/C3. For this purpose, rectal swabs were collected from farm and companion animals; and cloacal swab or litter were collected from chickens and they were processed for VRE isolation. Following the identification of the isolates, antimicrobial susceptibilities of the isolates were determined in accordance with the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) standards. Distribution of the vancomycin resistant genes; vanA, vanB, vanC1 and vanC2/C3 among enterococcus species and different animal species were determined by multiplex PCR. VRE were isolated from 17% of the feline samples, 20% of each of the other species, and 19% of all the samples. Those isolates were identified as E. casseliflavus (n=39), E. gallinarum (n=55) and E. faecium (n=3) as a result of multiplex-PCR. According to the antimicrobial susceptibility tests, most of the isolates were found to be resistant to penicillin G, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin. Eighteen (18.8%) of the isolates were found to be resistant against two antibiotic groups, while 69 (71 %) of them were resistant to three or more antibiotics.