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Diversity of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Enterococcus Strains Isolated from Ready‐to‐Eat Meat Products
Author(s) -
ChajęckaWierzchowska Wioleta,
Zadernowska Anna,
ŁaniewskaTrokenheim Łucja
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/1750-3841.13523
Subject(s) - enterococcus hirae , enterococcus , enterococcus faecium , tetracycline , microbiology and biotechnology , enterococcus faecalis , biology , gene , antibiotics , genetics , escherichia coli
The objective of the study was to answer the question of whether the ready‐to‐eat meat products can pose indirect hazard for consumer health serving as reservoir of Enterococcus strains harboring tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, and macrolides resistance genes. A total of 390 samples of ready‐to‐eat meat products were investigated. Enterococcus strains were found in 74.1% of the samples. A total of 302 strains were classified as: Enterococcus faecalis (48.7%), Enterococcus faecium (39.7%), Enterococcus casseliflavus (4.3%), Enterococcus durans (3.0%), Enterococcus hirae (2.6%), and other Enterococcus spp. (1.7%). A high percentage of isolates were resistant to streptomycin high level (45%) followed by erythromycin (42.7%), fosfomycin (27.2%), rifampicin (19.2%), tetracycline (36.4%), tigecycline (19.9%). The ant(6′)‐Ia gene was the most frequently found gene (79.6%). Among the other genes that encode aminoglycosides‐modifying enzymes, the highest portion of the strains had the aac(6′)‐Ie‐aph(2′′)‐Ia (18.5%) and aph(3′′)‐IIIa (16.6%), but resistance of isolates from food is also an effect of the presence of aph(2′′)‐Ib, aph(2′′)‐Ic, aph(2′′)‐Id genes. Resistance to tetracyclines was associated with the presence of tet M (43.7%), tet L (32.1%), tet K (14.6%), tet W (0.7%), and tet O (0.3%) genes. The erm B and erm A genes were found in 33.8% and 18.9% of isolates, respectively. Nearly half of the isolates contained a conjugative transposon of the Tn 916/ Tn 1545 family. Enterococci are widely present in retail ready‐to‐eat meat products. Many isolated strains (including such species as E. casseliflavus , E. durans , E. hirae , and Enterococcus gallinarum ) are antibiotic resistant and carry transferable resistance genes.