Emergence of and in Multidrug-Resistant Isolates From Flowers and the Retail Environment in China.

We examined the prevalence and transmission of the gene among isolates from flowers and the retail environments. We identified 11 fosfomycin-resistant strains (>256 μg/mL) from 270 samples that included petals ( = 7), leaves ( = 2), dust ( = 1) and water ( = 1). These 11 isolates were multidrug-resistant and most were simultaneously resistant to fosfomycin, cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin and amikacin. Consistently, all 11 isolates also possessed , , , , and . These -positive isolates were assigned to two distinct PFGE patterns and one ( = 9) predominated indicating clonal expansion of -positive isolates across flower markets and shops. Correspondingly, was co-transferred with two plasmid types by conjugation possessing sizes of 110 kb ( = 9) and 260 kb ( = 2). Two representatives were fully sequenced and p12-1 and pS39-1 possessed one and two unclassified replicons, respectively. These plasmids shared a distinctive and conserved backbone in common with -carrying and other from human and food animals. However, the - -containing multidrug resistance regions on these untypable plasmids were highly heterogeneous. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of and that were present in bacterial contaminants from flower shops and markets. These findings underscore a public health threat posed by untypable and transferable p12-1-like and pS39-1-like plasmids bearing - that could circulate among species and in particular in environmental isolates.