Persistence of animal and human glycopeptide-resistant enterococci on two Norwegian poultry farms formerly exposed to avoparcin is associated with a widespread plasmid-mediated vanA element within a polyclonal enterococcus faecium population.

ABSTRACT: The evolutionary processes responsible for the long-term persistence of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium (GREF) in nonselective environments were addressed by genetic analyses of E. faecium populations in animals and humans on two Norwegian poultry farms that were previously exposed to avoparcin. A total of 222 fecal GREF (n = 136) and glycopeptide-susceptible (n = 86) E. faecium (GSEF) isolates were obtained from farmers and poultry on three separate occasions in 1998 and 1999. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and plasmid DNA analyses discerned 22 GREF and 32 GSEF PFGE types within shifting polyclonal animal and human E. faecium populations and indicated the presence of transferable plasmid-mediated vanA resistance, respectively. Examples of dominant, persistent GREF PFG

SUBMITTER: Johnsen PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC544227 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature