Publication Database

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci in rooks (Corvus frugilegus) wintering throughout Europe (2013)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Oravcova, Veronika

Ghosh, Anuradha

Zurek, Ludek

Bardon, Jan

Guenther, Sebastian (WE 7)

Cizek, Alois

Literak, Ivan

Quelle

Environmental microbiology

Bandzählung: 15

Heftzählung: 2

Seiten: 548 – 556

ISSN: 1462-2912

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12002

Pubmed: 23116146

Kontakt

Institut für Mikrobiologie und Tierseuchen

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51843 / 66949
mikrobiologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

This study's aims were to assess the prevalence of, and to characterize, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from rooks (Corvus frugilegus) wintering in Europe during 2010/2011. Faeces samples were cultivated selectively for VRE and characterized. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were used to examine epidemiologic relationships of vanA-containing VRE. The vanA-carrying VRE were tested in vitro for mobility of vancomycin resistance traits. VRE were found in 62 (6%) of 1073 rook samples. Enterococcal species diversity comprised Enterococcus gallinarum (48 isolates), followed by E. faecium (9) and E. faecalis (5). Eight VRE harboured the vanA and ermB genes. Seven vanA-carrying VRE originated from the Czech Republic and one from Germany. All vanA-carrying VRE were identified as E. faecium. Based on MLST analysis, six vanA-positive isolates were grouped as ST92 type, one isolate belonged to ST121, and the remaining one was described as a novel type ST671. Seven out of eight isolates were able to transfer the vancomycin resistance trait via filter mating with a transfer rate of 8.95 ± 3.25 × 10(-7) transconjugants per donor. In conclusion, wintering rooks in some European countries may disseminate clinically important enterococci and pose a risk for environmental contamination.