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Antibiotic resistance and virulence factors among clinical and food enterococci isolated in Slovakia

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Abstract

The resistance to antibiotics and the distribution of virulence factors in enterococci isolated from traditional Slovak sheep cheese bryndza was compared with strains from human infections. The occurrence of 4 enterococcal species was observed in 117 bryndza-cheese isolates. The majority of strains were identified asE. faecium (76%) andE. faecalis (23%). Several strains ofE. durans and 1 strain ofE. hirae were also present. More than 90% of strains isolated from 109 clinical enterococci wereE. faecalis, the rest belonged toE. faecium. The resistance to 6 antimicrobial substances (ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, higher concentration of gentamicin, nitrofurantoin, tetracycline and vancomycin) was tested in clinical and food enterococci. A higher level of resistance was found in clinical than in food strains andE. faecium had a higher resistance thanE. faecalis; no resistance to vancomycin was detected. The occurrence of 3 virulence-associated genes,cylA (coding for hemolysin),gelE (coding for gelatinase) andesp (coding for surface protein) was monitored. Differences were found in the distribution ofcylA gene between clinical and bryndza-cheeseE. faecalis strains; in contrast to clinical strains (45%),cylA gene was detected in 22% of food isolates. The distribution of 2 other virulence factors,gelE andesp, was not significantly different in the two groups ofE. faecalis strains.cylA andgelE genes were not detected inE. faecium but more than 70% of clinicalE. faecium were positive foresp, even thought none of the 79E. faecium cheese isolates contained this gene.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    H. Drahovská, D. Kocíncová & J. Turňa

  2. Department of Institute of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    M. Seman

  3. Department of Microbiology, Medical Faculty, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    L. Slobodníková & R. Končeková

  4. National Institute of Oncology, Bratislava, Slovakia

    J. Trupl

  5. Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

    J. Turňa

Authors
  1. H. Drahovská
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  2. L. Slobodníková
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  3. D. Kocíncová
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  4. M. Seman
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  5. R. Končeková
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  6. J. Trupl
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  7. J. Turňa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Drahovská.

Additional information

This project was supported by the VEGA grant (no.1/9169/02) from theMinistry of Education of the Slovak Republic, by the grant VTP 178/2000 and by theDevelopment of Science and Technology grant “Food — the quality and safety” from theMinistry of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic.

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Drahovská, H., Slobodníková, L., Kocíncová, D. et al. Antibiotic resistance and virulence factors among clinical and food enterococci isolated in Slovakia. Folia Microbiol 49, 763–768 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02931562

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02931562

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