Isolation and Identification of Enterococcus Species and Determination of Their Susceptibility Patterns Against Antibiotics and Heavy Metals in Coastal Waters of Iran

Recreational waters should be considered as risks for Enterococcal infections in regions with high utilization and long exposure periods. The aim of this study was to investigate the resistance of Enterococci to selected antibiotics and some heavy metals [Pb+2, Fe+2, Zn+2 and Cr+2]. A total of 75 Enterococcal isolates was obtained from 54 bathing and fishing water samples from 9 bathing and fishing areas in Bandar Abbas (Iran). Enterococcus raffinosus and Enteroccoccus faecium were the most prevalent species. Disk diffusion method was performed to determine the high level resistance to selected antibiotics, and Micro dilution method was used to detect the sensitivities of the strains against different concentrations (0.005-20 mM) of heavy metals.  Antibiotic resistance patterns were observed in isolates. All of the isolates were resistant to Penicillin. Many of them exhibited high resistance to Streptomycin and Kanamycin in 68.08% and 65.96% respectively. The results suggest that recreational waters may contribute to the dissemination of Enterococcal species that exhibit resistance to several antibiotics which are used to treat community-acquired infections.