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Antibiotic resistance in animal isolates of enterococci is a public health concern, because of the risk of transmission of antibiotic-resistant strains or resistance genes to humans through the food chain. This study investigated copper resistance and its relationship with erythromycin resistance in 245 enterococcal isolates from bovine milk. Phenotypic and genotypic resistance to erythromycin and copper sulfate were investigated. Of the 245 enterococcal isolates, 79.2% (n=194) displayed erythromycin resistance (≥8 μg/ml). Of the erythromycin-resistant isolates, 97.4% (n=189) possessed erm(B), 73.7% (n=143) possessed mef(A), and 71.6% (n=139) possessed both genes. Of the 245 enterococcal isolates, only 4.5% (n=11) displayed copper resistance (≥28 mM) and the copper resistance gene, tcr(B), was detected in seven isolates that all possessed erm(B). This study is the first to report the tcr(B) gene in enterococci isolated from Korean bovine milk and its relationship to erythromycin resistance.

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Antibiotic resistance in animal isolates of enterococci is a public health concern, because of the risk of transmission of antibiotic-resistant strains or resistance genes to humans through the food chain. This study investigated phenotypic and genotypic resistances profile of tetracycline in 245 Enterococcus isolates from bovine milk. A total of 245 enterococci were isolated from 950 milk samples. The predominant strain was E. faecalis (n = 199, 81.2%) and E. faecium (n = 25, 10.2%). E. avium (n = 7, 2.9%), E. durans (n = 6, 2.5%), E. gallinarum (n = 4, 1.6%), and E. raffinosus (n = 4, 1.6%) were also isolated. Of the 245 enterococcal isolates 76.3% (n = 187) displayed tetracycline resistance (≥ 16 µg/ml). Of the 187 tetracycline-resistant isolates, 83.4% (n = 156), 16.1% (n = 30), and 26.7% (n = 50) possessed the genes tet(M), tet(L), tet(S) respectively. While 3.2% (n = 6) of the tetracycline-resistant isolates possessed all three genes tet(M) + tet(L) + tet(S), 8.6% (n = 16), 16.0% (n = 30), and 2.7% (n = 5) of them possessed two genes tet(M) + tet(L), tet(M) + tet(S), and tet(L) + tet(S) respectively. The tetracycline resistance pattern investigated in this study was attributable mainly to the presence of tet(M).

Raw milk samples, and cow and chicken intestines were tested to isolate vancomycin-resistant, gram-positive bacteria. From these samples, we isolated seven vancomycin-resistant Streptococcus equinus, two vancomycin-resistant viridans Streptococcus and two vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium. The MICs of several antibiotics, including vancomycin, against these strains were tested. Seven isolates of S. equinus showed high level resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin (>100 microg/mL). The cell wall thickness of these strains was compared with that of the sensitive strain by TEM and no differences were obserbed between these strains. We compared the strains of vancomycin-resistant Streptococcus equinus using PCR with Microbial Uniprimer Kit. We concluded that it is necessary to combine other methods in order to cluster and identify all isolates of S. equinus.