Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Apartado 127, 2781-901 Oeiras, Portugal.
Vet Microbiol. 2013 Jan 25;161(3-4):344-9. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2012.07.034. Epub 2012 Jul 27.
Environmental dust from animal breeding facilities was never screened for the presence of enterococci, nor of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), despite the possibility of being a vehicle of transmission of strains and antibiotic resistance genes between food-producing animals and man. Bio-security measures in pig facilities include disinfection with biocides to avoid the dissemination of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, namely enterococci and in particular VRE. We thus undertook collection of enterococci and VRE in a representative number of breeding pig facilities in Portugal (n=171) and analyzed their susceptibility to benzalkonium chloride (BC) and chlorhexidine (CHX). A prevalence of 15% of VRE was found, with 6% high-level resistance found, and MIC values for CHX and BC were similar to those commonly found among enterococcal isolates from related environments, 8 μg/ml and 4 μg/ml, respectively. Among the isolated high-level vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium carrying the vanA genotype, we found multilocus sequence types closely related to pig and human isolates from European countries and Brazil. These results strongly advise constant surveillance of this environment and its inclusion in future epidemiologic studies on VRE.
来自动物养殖设施的环境灰尘从未被筛选出肠球菌的存在，也没有筛选出万古霉素耐药肠球菌（VRE），尽管它们可能是食源性动物和人类之间传播菌株和抗生素耐药基因的媒介。猪设施中的生物安全措施包括使用杀生物剂进行消毒，以避免机会性病原菌（即肠球菌，尤其是 VRE）的传播。因此，我们在葡萄牙的代表性数量的养殖猪设施中采集了肠球菌和 VRE（n=171），并分析了它们对苯扎氯铵（BC）和洗必泰（CHX）的敏感性。发现 VRE 的流行率为 15%，其中 6%为高水平耐药性，CHX 和 BC 的 MIC 值与从相关环境中分离出的肠球菌分离株中常见的 MIC 值相似，分别为 8 μg/ml 和 4 μg/ml。在携带 vanA 基因型的分离出的高水平万古霉素耐药粪肠球菌中，我们发现与欧洲国家和巴西的猪和人分离株密切相关的多位点序列类型。这些结果强烈建议对这种环境进行持续监测，并将其纳入未来关于 VRE 的流行病学研究中。
