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Resistance patterns of non‐O157 Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains isolated from animals, food and asymptomatic human carriers in Switzerland
Author(s) -
Stephan R.,
Schumacher S.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1046/j.1472-765x.2001.00867.x
Subject(s) - microbiology and biotechnology , tetracycline , biology , ampicillin , antibiotics , antibiotic resistance , streptomycin , chloramphenicol , sulfamethoxazole , gentamicin , escherichia coli , trimethoprim , genetics , gene
R. STEPHAN AND S. SCHUMACHER. 2001 . Aims: The objective of the present study was to determine the resistance patterns of non‐O157 Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains isolated from different sources in Switzerland during the period 1997–99 as an epidemiological marker. Methods and Results: The disk diffusion method was used to test 82 non‐O157 STEC strains for susceptibility to 13 antibiotics. Ten strains were resistant to one and 20 strains to two and more antibiotics. The most frequent resistance types were streptomycin (14 strains), cephalothin (14 strains), sulfamethoxazole (14 strains) and tetracycline (14 strains). Three O100:H– STEC strains isolated from healthy slaughter pigs were resistant to eight antibiotics: streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, tetracycline, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, neomycin and gentamicin. Conclusions: Periodic surveillance of the antibiotic susceptibilities would be an important measure in detecting emergence and spread of resistance. Significance and Impact of the Study: Antibiotic susceptibility testing can be a useful tool for typing strains and should be used in combination with other phenotypic and genotypic methods.