Prevalence of inducible clindamycin resistance among community-associated staphylococcal isolates in central Serbia

The emergence of resistance to most antimicrobial agents in staphylococci indicates the need for new effective agents in the treatment of staphylococcal infections. Clindamycin is considered to be one safe, effective and less costly agent. We analysed 482 staphylococcal isolates. Detection of inducible clindamycin resistance was performed by the D-test, while the presence of methylases genes: erm (A), erm (B) and erm (C), as well as, macrolide efflux gene mef was determined by polymerase chain reaction. Inducible clindamycin resistance phenotype was significantly higher in Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) strains then in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). Among analysed S. aureus isolates, the predominance of the erm (C) gene, followed by the erm (A) gene were detected. These results indicate that the D-test should be routinely performed on each staphylococcal isolates.