Molecular Characterization of Gentamicin-Resistant Enterococci in the United States: Evidence of Spread from Animals to Humans through Food

DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.3.1109-1113.2003

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FIG. 1.
PFGE of SmaI-digested genomic DNA from gentamicin-resistant E. faecalis from grocery store chicken isolates and one human isolate. Lanes 1, 4, and 10, Lambda ladder DNA standard; lanes 2 and 3, human and grocery store chicken isolates, respectively, from Oregon with indistinguishable PFGE patterns; lanes 5 through 7, grocery store chicken isolate from Georgia with indistinguishable PFGE patterns; lanes 8 and 9, grocery store chicken isolates from Maryland and Oregon with indistinguishable PFGE patterns.
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FIG. 2.
PFGE of SmaI-digested genomic DNA from gentamicin-resistant E. faecalis isolated from human and ground pork samples in Michigan. Lanes 1 and 9, Lambda ladder DNA standard; lane 2, human isolate; lanes 3 through 8, ground pork isolates with related PFGE patterns.

TABLE 1.

Gentamicin resistance gene content of gentamicin-resistant enterococci from humans, food, and food-producing animals

Gentamicin resistance gene and species	Total	Sources/No. positive
		Human	Food		Food-producing animal
		Human	Chicken	Pork	Chicken	Turkey	Swine	Dairy
aac(6′)-Ie-aph(2")-Ia
E. faecalis	189	28	24	56	6	15	36	24
E. faecium	65	11	2	0	4	7	3	38
E. casseliflavus	3	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
E. gallinarum	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Total (%)	259 (72)	39 (95)	27 (69)	56 (85)	10 (71)	26 (62)	39 (78)	62 (58)
aph(2")-Ic
E. faecalis	60	0	0	9	0	0	10	41
E. faecium	6	1	0	0	0	0	1	4
Total (%)	66 (18)	1 (2.5)	0 (0)	9 (14)	0 (0)	0 (0)	11 (22)	45 (42)
aph(2")-Id
E. faecalis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
E. faecium	33	1	12	0	4	16	0	0
Total (%)	33 (9)	1 (2.5)	12 (31)	0 (0)	4 (27)	16 (38)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Total (%)	360^a	41	39	66^a	15^a	42	50	107

↵ a Two E. faecalis isolates (gentamicin MICs > 1,024 μg/ml) from pork and a chicken farm failed to generate a PCR product for any of the genes tested.