Detection of antibiotic resistant E. coli and Enterococcus spp. in stool of healthy growing children in Portugal

Abstract

From stool specimens of 118 healthy children's (1-14 years) in Portugal 92 E. coli and 101 Enterococcu s spp. strains have been isolated. Almost half (40.2%) of the E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin, 25.0% were resistant to tetracycline and 26.1% were resistant to streptomycin. Resistance genes detected by specific PCR included bla(TEM) and/or bla(SHV) and/or bla(CTX-M) (33 of 37 ampicillin and/or cefotaxime resistant isolates), tet (A) and/or tet (B) (16 of 23 tetracycline-resistant isolates), aad A (19 of 24 streptomycin-resistant isolates), cml A (in the two chloramphenicol-resistant isolates), aac (3)-II with/without aac (3)-IV (in the four gentamicin-resistant isolates), sul 1 and/or sul 2 and/or sul 3 (in all trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole resistant isolates). The majority of the resistant E. coli isolates (69.1%) belonged to phylogenetic group B2. Of the enterococci isolates E. faecium (n = 53), E. faecalis (n = 41), E. hirae (n = 4) and E. durans (n = 3) more than one-fourth (28.7%) of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline; 21.8% were resistant to erythromycin and 8.9% were resistant to kanamycin. Resistance genes detected by PCR in enterococci included aph (3)'-IIIa (in all kanamycin-resistant isolates), aac (6') (in all gentamicin-resistant isolates), tet (M) and/or tet (L) (26 of 29 tetracycline-resistant isolates), erm (B) (17 of 22 erythromycin-resistant isolates). This survey showed that faecal bacteria such as E. coli and enterococci of healthy growing children's could be a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance genes.

Carriage of Multidrug Resistant Enterococcus Faecium and Enterococcus Faecalis Among Apparently Healthy Humans

“…In this study, E. faecium was the most dominant species with prevalence of 55.4%. This finding is consistent with studies that have established the preponderance of E. faecium in healthy human samples with 44.9% E. faecium and 34.7% E. faecalis (Barreto et al 2009). A similar distribution of enterococcal species was observed in poultry (Krocko et al, 2007).…”

Increased Survival of Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli inside Macrophages

“…At present, STRresistant isolates have been identified in many other important pathogens, such as Shigella flexneri, Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and even in commensal E. coli sampled from healthy individuals (32)(33)(34)(35). A high resistance incidence to this drug is frequently due to point mutations in rpsL gene, with the most common mutations occurring at the codons K43 and K88 (36) that were examined here.…”

Dissemination of antibiotic resistant Enterococcus spp. and Escherichia coli from wild birds of Azores Archipelago

“…Earlier reports have shown that the ermB erythromycin-resistant gene is the most frequently resistance gene found among erythromycin-resistant enterococci tested [39].…”