Abstract
We investigated the prevalence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) isolated from wastewater (n = 593) and clinical (n = 450) samples, and the genetic linkage between the isolates was compared. Out of the total samples, 38 Enterococcus faecium (3.6%) from sewage (n = 19) and clinical (n = 19) isolates were found to be highly resistant to vancomycin. The majority of the VRE isolates from the two sources showed distinct phenotyping and genotyping patterns. At the same time, one common pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern was found among the VRE obtained from wastewater and human clinical isolates, suggestive of an epidemiological link.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by World Health Organization, Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office grant no. R6/18/3, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) grant no. 6342, and Ministry of Health of Iran, under-secretariat of research. We are also thankful to Dr. Mohammad Rahbar from National Reference Laboratory for collecting the samples.
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Talebi, M., Rahimi, F., Katouli, M. et al. Epidemiological Link Between Wastewater and Human Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Isolates. Curr Microbiol 56, 468–473 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-008-9113-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-008-9113-0