The enterococcal surface protein, Esp, originally found in Enterococcus faecalis, has been associated with increased virulence, colonization, and biofilm formation (2, 3, 5, 6). Recently, a variant esp gene was found in Enterococcus faecium isolates from humans (L. Baldassarri, L. Burtuccini, M. G. Ammendolia, G. Gherardi, and R. Creti, Letter, Lancet 357:1802, 2001; R. J. Willems, W. Homan, J....

Eight clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium highly resistant to gentamicin (MIC, > 1,000 mg/liter) from patients in six hospitals on three continents were investigated for evidence of spread of either a clone of high-level gentamicin-resistant (HLGR) E. faecium or wide dissemination of a gentamicin resistance (Gmr) plasmid. A combination of ribotypes, plasmid profiles, and extended antimicr...

Enterococcus faecium has emerged as an important cause of nosocomial infections over the last two decades. We recently demonstrated collagen type I (CI) as a common adherence target for some E. faecium isolates and a significant correlation was found to exist between acm-mediated CI adherence and clinical origin. Here, we evaluated 60 diverse E. faecium isolates for their adherence to up to 15 ...

A total of 12 VanA-type vancomycin-resistant enterococci, consisting of 10 Enterococcus faecium isolates and two Enterococcus avium isolates, were examined in detail. The vancomycin resistance conjugative plasmids pHTalpha (65.9 kbp), pHTbeta (63.7 kbp), and pHTgamma (66.5 kbp) were isolated from each of three different E. faecium strains. The plasmids transferred highly efficiently between ent...

We determined the antibiotic susceptibilities of 1,785 enterococcal bloodstream isolates collected over 25 years. Antibiotic resistance emerged at a greater rate in Enterococcus faecium than in other enterococcal species, and E. faecium isolates became proportionally more common over time. Our findings confirm the pattern of emerging antibiotic resistance among enterococci and highlight the inc...

A number of Enterococcus strains with high-level inducible resistance to vancomycin have been identified, and the relative incidence of these strains has increased significantly in the last years. The first outbreak caused by vancomycin-resistant enterococci in Poland was reported in 1999. Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium is known for its propensity to cause infections which are diffic...

BACKGROUND Virginiamycin use in poultry selects for Enterococcus faecium with cross-resistance to quinupristin-dalfopristin, a drug for vancomycin-resistant E. faecium in humans. We conducted an epidemiologic study of poultry exposures as risk factors for human carriage of quinupristin-dalfopristin-resistant E. faecium. METHODS Rectal or fecal samples for E. faecium testing were obtained from...

The activity of nitrofurantoin was tested against 300 isolates of Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis, and Enterococcus gallinarum. No isolates tested were resistant to nitrofurantoin (MIC, >/=128 microg/ml), including vancomycin-resistant E. faecium isolates with vanA- and vanB-positive genotypes and vancomycin-resistant E. gallinarum isolates. We conclude that nitrofurantoin may provi...

The global emergence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium has been characterized as the clonal spread of clonal complex 17 (CC17) E. faecium. CC17 was defined upon multilocus sequence typing and is characterized by resistance to quinolones and ampicillin and the presence of the enterococcal surface protein (Esp) in the majority of isolates. The recently noticed increased incidence of va...

Enterococcus faecium recently evolved from a generally avirulent commensal into a multidrug-resistant health care-associated pathogen causing difficult-to-treat infections, but little is known about the factors responsible for this change. We previously showed that some E. faecium strains express a cell wall-anchored collagen adhesin, Acm. Here we analyzed 90 E. faecium isolates (99% acm(+)) an...