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Increasing use of antibiotics for the treatment of infectious diseases and also for non-therapeutic reasons (agriculture, animal husbandry and aquaculture) has led to the increasing incidence of antibiotic resistance and the ineffectiveness of antimicrobial treatment. Commensal intestinal bacteria are very often exposed to the selective pressure of antimicrobial agents and may constitute a reservoir of antibiotic resistance determinants that can be transferred to pathogens. The present study aimed to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility profile and the presence of selected resistance genes in cocci isolated from the faecal microbiota of 35 healthy, full-term infants at 4, 30 and 90 days after delivery. A total of 148 gram-positive, catalase-negative cocci were isolated and tested for susceptibility to 12 different antibiotics by disk-diffusion technique. Multiplex PCR analysis was performed for the identification of Enterococcus spp. isolates and the simultaneous detection of vancomycin-resistance genes. PCR-based methodology was used also for identification of tetracycline and erythromycin resistance determinants. Identification results indicated E. faecalis as the predominant species (81 strains), followed by E. faecium, E. casseliflavus/E. flavescens and E. gallinarum. High prevalence of resistance to tetracycline (39.9%), erythromycin (35.1%), vancomycin (19.6%) and to nucleic acid synthesis inhibitors was detected. PCR data revealed 24 out of 52 erythromycin-resistant isolates carrying the ermB gene and 32 out of 59 tetracycline-resistant strains carrying tet genes, with tet(L) determinant being the most frequently detected. Only intrinsic vancomycin resistance (vanC1 and vanC2/C3) was reported among tested isolates. In conclusion, erythromycin and tetracycline acquired resistant traits are widespread among faecal cocci isolates from Greek, healthy infants under no apparent antimicrobial selective pressure.

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A total of 83 dairy products form the Greek market were examined for their bacterial populations and results were compared with the label information. The antibiotic susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was also examined. The status labeling of the yoghurts and the dairy desserts was found insufficient. The 89.8% of the cocci was found susceptible against all the 12 antibiotics examined. Lactobacillus spp. strains exhibited some kind of resistance to one or more antibiotics. The isolates of Lactobacillus delbrueckii showed resistance to one to four antibiotics, the isolates of Lactobacillus acidophilus were resistant to one to three antibiotics, while the Lactobacillus paracasei strains were resistant to four or five antibiotics. Finally, multi-resistant strains (six to nine antibiotics) were found only among the Lactobacillus rhamnosus strains.