This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gambarotto, K.
Right arrow Articles by Denis, F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gambarotto, K.
Right arrow Articles by Denis, F.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2000, p. 620-624, Vol. 38, No. 2
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Prevalence of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Fecal Samples from Hospitalized Patients and Nonhospitalized Controls in a Cattle-Rearing Area of France

Karine Gambarotto,1 Marie-Cécile Ploy,1 Pascal Turlure,2 Carole Grélaud,1 Christian Martin,1 Dominique Bordessoule,2 and Francois Denis1,*

Department of Microbiology and Virology, EP CNRS 118,1 and Department of Clinical Hematology,2 Limoges University Teaching Hospital, France

Received 14 June 1999/Returned for modification 23 August 1999/Accepted 1 November 1999

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as nosocomial pathogens over the last decade, but little is known about their epidemiology. We report on the prevalence of VRE fecal colonization on the basis of a prospective study among patients hospitalized in a hematology intensive care unit and among nonhospitalized subjects living in the local community. A total of 243 rectal swabs from hematology patients and 169 stool samples from the control group were inoculated onto bile-esculin agar plates with and without 6 mg of vancomycin per liter and into an enrichment bile-esculin broth supplemented with 4 mg of vancomycin per liter. A total of 37% of the hospitalized patients and 11.8% of the subjects from the community were found to be VRE carriers. A total of 65 VRE strains were isolated: 12 (18.5%) E. faecium, 46 (70.7%) E. gallinarum, and 7 (10.8%) E. casseliflavus strains. No E. faecalis strains were detected. All the E. faecium strains were of the vanA genotype. Molecular typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed a different pattern for each vanA VRE strain that originated from an individual subject. To our knowledge, this is the first study to be carried out in a cattle-rearing region of France. It reports a higher VRE prevalence than that reported in previous European or U.S. studies. A partial explanation is the use of an enrichment broth step which enabled detection of strains which would otherwise have been missed, but the fact that subjects and patients were recruited from a predominantly agricultural area where vancomycin-related antibiotics have recently been used in animal husbandry could also contribute to the high levels of VRE in patients and subjects alike.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratoire de Bactériologie-Virologie-Hygiène, 2 av Martin Luther King, 87000 Limoges, France. Phone: (33) 555-05-61-66. Fax: (33) 555-05-67-22. E-mail: f.denis{at}unilim.fr.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2000, p. 620-624, Vol. 38, No. 2
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Kuhn, I., Iversen, A., Finn, M., Greko, C., Burman, L. G., Blanch, A. R., Vilanova, X., Manero, A., Taylor, H., Caplin, J., Dominguez, L., Herrero, I. A., Moreno, M. A., Mollby, R. (2005). Occurrence and Relatedness of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Animals, Humans, and the Environment in Different European Regions. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71: 5383-5390 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Manson, J. M., Smith, J. M. B., Cook, G. M. (2004). Persistence of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in New Zealand Broilers after Discontinuation of Avoparcin Use. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70: 5764-5768 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Sofianou, D., Pournaras, S., Giosi, M., Polyzou, A., Maniatis, A. N., Tsakris, A. (2004). Substantially increased faecal carriage of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in a tertiary Greek hospital after a 4 year time interval. J Antimicrob Chemother 54: 251-254 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Garnier, F., Gambarotto, K., Denis, F., Ploy, M.-C. (2004). Molecular study of vancomycin-resistant enterococci isolated from humans and from food in a cattle-rearing area of France. J Antimicrob Chemother 54: 236-239 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Novicki, T. J., Schapiro, J. M., Ulness, B. K., Sebeste, A., Busse-Johnston, L., Swanson, K. M., Swanzy, S. R., Leisenring, W., Limaye, A. P. (2004). Convenient Selective Differential Broth for Isolation of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus from Fecal Material. J. Clin. Microbiol. 42: 1637-1640 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Foglia, G., Del Grosso, M., Vignaroli, C., Bagnarelli, P., Varaldo, P. E., Pantosti, A., Biavasco, F. (2003). Molecular analysis of Tn1546-like elements mediating high-level vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus gallinarum. J Antimicrob Chemother 52: 772-775 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kuriyama, T., Williams, D. W., Patel, M., Lewis, M. A.O., Jenkins, L. E., Hill, D. W., Hosein, I. K. (2003). Molecular characterization of clinical and environmental isolates of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis from a teaching hospital in Wales. J Med Microbiol 52: 821-827 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Padiglione, A. A., Wolfe, R., Grabsch, E. A., Olden, D., Pearson, S., Franklin, C., Spelman, D., Mayall, B., Johnson, P. D. R., Grayson, M. L. (2003). Risk Factors for New Detection of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Acute-Care Hospitals That Employ Strict Infection Control Procedures. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 47: 2492-2498 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Manson, J. M., Keis, S., Smith, J. M. B., Cook, G. M. (2003). Characterization of a Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VREF) Isolate from a Dog with Mastitis: Further Evidence of a Clonal Lineage of VREF in New Zealand. J. Clin. Microbiol. 41: 3331-3333 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Manson, J. M., Keis, S., Smith, J. M. B., Cook, G. M. (2003). A Clonal Lineage of VanA-Type Enterococcus faecalis Predominates in Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci Isolated in New Zealand. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 47: 204-210 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Iversen, A., Kuhn, I., Franklin, A., Mollby, R. (2002). High Prevalence of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Swedish Sewage. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68: 2838-2842 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Sorensen, T. L., Blom, M., Monnet, D. L., Frimodt-Moller, N., Poulsen, R. L., Espersen, F. (2001). Transient Intestinal Carriage after Ingestion of Antibiotic-Resistant Enterococcus faecium from Chicken and Pork. NEJM 345: 1161-1166 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Harwood, V. J., Brownell, M., Perusek, W., Whitlock, J. E. (2001). Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus spp. Isolated from Wastewater and Chicken Feces in the United States. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67: 4930-4933 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Gambarotto, K., Ploy, M.-C., Dupron, F., Giangiobbe, M., Denis, F. (2001). Occurrence of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Pork and Poultry Products from a Cattle-Rearing Area of France. J. Clin. Microbiol. 39: 2354-2355 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»