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Clonal groups of high‐level gentamicin‐resistant Enterococcus faecium isolated from municipal wastewater and clinical samples in Tehran, Iran
Author(s) -
Saifi M.,
Pourshafie M.R.,
Dallal M.M. Soltan,
Katouli M.
Publication year - 2009
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 - 10.1111/j.1472-765x.2009.02559.x
Subject(s) - clinical microbiology , gentamicin , enterococcus faecium , library science , medicine , veterinary medicine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , antibiotics , computer science
Aims: Clonality among high‐level gentamicin‐resistant Enterococcus faecium (HLGR‐EF) isolates obtained from clinical and sewage treatment plants (STP) were investigated using PhePlate system (PhP), ribotyping and pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Methods and Results: During 1 year study (September 2005–2006), a total of 106 HLGR‐EF isolates were collected from clinical ( n = 48) and STP ( n = 58) samples in Tehran, Iran. Biochemical fingerprinting of these isolates using the PhP showed the presence of 21 PhP types (diversity index, Di = 0·97) among the clinical and 21 PhP types ( Di = 0·91) among the STP isolates. Representative isolates of each PhP type ( n = 42) were further characterized by the ribotyping method. Sixteen ribotypes were identified among the isolates with five types shared between the clinical and STP isolates. PFGE recognized 24 clonal types among these isolates with three pulsotypes shared between the clinical and STP isolates. Combination of the two techniques (PFGE and ribotyping) resulted in 24 ( Di = 0·96) and 16 ( Di = 0·93) types among the strains isolated from clinical and STP samples, respectively. Conclusions: We concluded that the combination of PhP typing, ribotyping and PFGE could be extremely discriminatory when examining HLGR‐EF isolates. Significance and Impact of the Study: The emergence of highly diverse HLGR‐EF population in Iran is of serious concern especially because of their multi‐resistances.