Prevalence, characterization and antibiotic resistance of enterococci from traditional cheeses in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to provide information about Enterococcus strains isolated from traditional Turkish cheese samples in Ankara (Turkey), focusing on their prevalence, phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, and antibiotic resistance. A total of 213 probable enterococcal isolates isolated from 215 samples were identified by phenotypic and genotypic methods. As a result of 16S rDNA sequence analysis, 88 of the 213 enterococci strains were identified as Enterococcus faecium and 125 as Enterococcus faecalis. The E. faecalis strains (58.7%) were identified as the dominant species isolated from cheese samples in Turkey. The 213 Enterococcus strains were tested for susceptibility to 12 different antimicrobial agents. The resistance phenotype were as follow: nalidixic acid (100%), kanamycin (98.6%), rifampicin (78.4%), ampicillin (48.8%), ciprofloxacin (45.5%), erythromycin (18.8%), tetracycline (11.7%), penicillin G (5.6%), chloramphenicol (4.2%), gentamycin (3.8%) and streptomycin (1.4%). None of the strains was resistant to vancomycin. E. faecium strains showed more resistant phenotypes than E. faecalis strains as shown by the antibiotic resistance levels. It was also observed that the resistance of E. faecium and E. faecalis strains against the antibiotics was statistically significant (p ˂ 0.05). In total, 100% of E. faecium and 88.8% of E. faecalis strains were resistant to multiple drugs.

Aksaray İli̇nde Satişa Sunulan Tulum Peyni̇rleri̇nden İzole Edi̇len Enterokoklarin Anti̇bi̇yoti̇k Di̇rençli̇li̇kleri̇ İle Hemoli̇ti̇k Akti̇vi̇teleri̇ni̇n Beli̇rlenmesi̇

“…Similar results were obtainedfor different traditional cheese samples, as reported by Yogurtcu and Tuncer (2013) and Bulajić et al (2015). On the other hand, Pesavento et al (2014) and Sanlibaba and Senturk (2018) reported relatively higher ampicillin resistance than penicillin.…”

“…Most of the enterococci have intrinsic resistance to nalidixic acid. Similar results were reported by Yuksel et al (2015) and Sanlibaba and Senturk (2018). Conversely, much lower resistance to nalidixic acid (62%) was reported by Furlaneto- Maia et al (2014).…”

“…Seventy-four percent of E. faecalis strains were intermediately and highly resistant to rifampicin, which inhibits the transcription of mRNA of the cell (Miller et al, 2014). Similar results were obtained by Sanlibaba and Senturk (2018), whereas higher resistance patterns were reported for E. faecium and E. faecalis from different traditional cheeses (Yuksel et al, 2015). In total, E. faecalis strains were found to be more resistant to ampicillin, vancomycin, gentamycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, erythromycin, and rifampicin comparing to E. faecium, and E. durans strains.…”

“…In total, E. faecalis strains were found to be more resistant to ampicillin, vancomycin, gentamycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, erythromycin, and rifampicin comparing to E. faecium, and E. durans strains. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) can be defined as resistance to at least three antibiotics (Sanlibaba and Senturk, 2018).The summary of MDR is given in Table 2. According to our results, 41.93% (n = 26) of the strains were resistant to at least three antibiotics.…”

“…Furthermore, enterococci have an efficient gene transfer mechanism through horizontal gene transfer and are able to transfer their plasmids encoding virulence genes in the human gastrointestinal tract with a broad range of bacteria, including pathogenic species, which makes treatments hindering (Jahan et al, 2015).Dissemination of MRE and VE is a serious problem worldwide, and the food chain is thought to be a significant vector for the transmission of these transposable genes. Numerous studies have reported the detection of VE and antibioticresistant enterococci for different kinds of cheeses (Jamet et al, 2012;Yogurtcu and Tuncer, 2013;Ispirli et al, 2017;Sanlibaba and Senturk, 2018;Ozdemir and Tuncer, 2020).…”