Virulence factors, antimicrobial susceptibility and molecular characterization of Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from pregnant women.

Forty-one Streptococcus agalactiae isolates collected from pregnant women at 35-37 weeks of gestation were analysed for their capsular types, antimicrobial resistance determinants, distribution of virulence factors and genetic relatedness using PCR and multiplex PCR. Capsular type III was predominant (65.8%), followed by capsular type II (14.6%), Ib (7.3%), and V(4.9%). All isolates were susceptible to penicillin, vancomycin, linezolid and quinupristin-dalfopristin. Resistance to tetracycline, erythromycin and clindamycin were found in 97.6%, 24.4%, and 14.6% of isolates, respectively. The most common antimicrobial resistance gene was tetM found in 97.6% of the isolates followed by ermTR and ermB found in 12% and 7.3% of isolates, respectively. The most common virulence gene was hly (100%), followed by scpB (97.6%), bca (97.6%), rib (53.65%) and bac (4.9%). The insertion sequence IS1548 was found in 63.4% of isolates. By multi locus variable number of tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) typing, 30 different allelic profiles or MLVA types (MTs) were identified. The most frequent was the MT1 (5/41, 12.2%) and followed by MT2 (4/41, 9.75%). Our data revealed that population structure of these isolates is highly diverse and indicates different MLVA types.