First isolation of Enterococcus strains in pig faeces in Turkey and determination of antibiotic susceptibilities

Abstract

In this trial, Enterococcus strains were isolated from a total of 69 faecal samples obtained from 238 pigs (105 pigs 6 months old) on three pig farms located in Istanbul and Tekirdag Provinces in the Marmara Region of Turkey in the summer season of 2003. Forty-seven of the isolates were determined as Enterococcus faecium (68%), 15 isolates as Enterococcus faecalis (21.7%), three isolates as Enterococcus gallinarum (4.3%) and one of each as Enterococcus hirae (1.4%), Enterococcus casseliflavus (1.4%), Enterococcus cecorum (1.4%) and Enterococcus sulfurens (1.4%). In addition, antimicrobial susceptibilites of isolates were assessed through the disk diffusion method. Among 47 E. faecium isolates, 44 were determined to be resistant to erythromycin, 38 to ciprofloxacine, and three isolates were resistant to vancomycin. All E. faecalis isolates were resistant to erythromycin (100%) and four were resistant to vancomycin (27%). Five E. faecium (11%) and five E. faecalis isolates (33%) were found to exhibit intermediate resistance to vancomycin. In this study, isolates obtained from pig faeces were determined to exhibit a high rate of antimicrobial resistance. This study is the first report on isolation and determination of antimicrobial resistance of Enterocci in Turkey.