Enterococci are important inhabitants of the animal intestine and are widely used in probiotic products. A probiotic strain is expected to possess several desirable properties in order to exert beneficial effects. Therefore, the objective of this study was to isolate, characterize and identify Enterococcus sp. from chicken cecal and fecal samples to determine potential probiotic properties. Ent...

Of the 9 vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) cases reported to date in the literature, 7 occurred in Michigan. In 5 of the 7 Michigan VRSA cases, an Inc18-like vanA plasmid was identified in the VRSA isolate and/or an associated vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) isolate from the same patient. This plasmid may play a critical role in the emergence of VRSA. We studied the geog...

Enterococci represent the most controversial group of dairy bacteria. They are found to be the main constituent of many traditional Mediterranean dairy products and contribute to their characteristic taste and flavor. On the other hand, during the last 50 years antibiotic-resistant enterococci have emerged as leading causes of nosocomial infections worldwide. The aim of this study was to determ...

associated with E. faecium swine strains, might mirror wide dissemination of a host-specific clone more prone than others to acquire and spread different antimicrobial resistance, as reported for human clinical E. faecium isolates (9). Since enterococci from swine are able to colonize in the human gut (5,7) and isolates harboring purK-9 can be recovered from hospitalized patients with severe in...

conclusions: the combination of plasmid profiling and php techniques revealed the presence of diverse population of vre in sewage treatment plant in tehran. furthermore, the results showed that the php technique is a reliable method in determining the vre clonal diversity. results: all isolates were found to be resistant to erythromycin, ampicillin and ciprofloxacin. the pcr analyses showed tha...

A total of 25 isolates of vanB-containing Enterococcus faecium were recovered from patients in a single Korean hospital over a 20-month period. There were two distinct vanB2 patterns among the 11 pulsed-field gel electrophoresis types; 17 contained the prototype vanB2 and 8 contained a novel vanB2 with a 177-bp deletion in vanY(B). Both vanB2 genes were transmissible in vitro at a mean frequenc...

To determine if hospital effluent input has an ecological impact on downstream aquatic environment, antibiotic resistance in Enterococcus spp. along a medical center-retirement home-wastewater treatment plant-river continuum in France was determined using a culture-based method. Data on antibiotic consumption among hospitalized and general populations and levels of water contamination by antibi...

Macroalgae belonging to the genus Padina are known to produce antibacterial compounds that may inhibit growth of human- and animal pathogens. Hitherto, it was unclear whether this antibacterial activity is produced by the macroalga itself or by secondary metabolite producing epiphytic bacteria. Here we report antibacterial activities of epiphytic bacteria isolated from Padina pavonica (Peacocks...

AIMS To investigate the survivability of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) under dry starvation conditions and the fitness cost of vancomycin resistance. METHODS VRE colonies on cotton swabs were incubated at room temperature in a sterile box and cultured weekly until cultures no longer showed growth. Negative swabs inoculated into brain heart infusion (BHI) broth were subcultured to blo...

The vanB gene cluster of enterococci confers resistance to vancomycin but not teicoplanin (4). In the United Kingdom, this cluster is found in approximately 15% of glycopeptideresistant enterococci from hospitalized patients (8), although proportions as high as 64 and 90% have been reported in some hospitals (9, 11). Three subtypes, based on nucleotide variability, have been designated vanB1, v...