Chloramphenicol resistance plasmids in Escherichia coli isolated from diseased piglets.

The plasmids in 19 chloramphenicol-resistant Escherichia coli strains of three pig pathogenic antigen types were studied in conjugation and transduction experiments. The plasmids had identical resistance patterns: streptomycin, spectinomycin, sulfonamides, and chloramphenicol (Sm, Sp, Su, Cm) and belonged to IncFII. One plasmid carried ampicillin resistance in addition. Restriction enzyme analysis of the deoxyribonucleic acid from five of the plasmids originating from the same herd showed that their digestion patterns with EcoRI were indistinguishable. EcoRI cleaved the deoxyribonucleic acid of a sixth plasmid from the same herd and displayed nine of the ten bands of the other five plasmids plus an additional six. It appears that the five plasmids with identical restriction patterns have a common origin and may be copies of the same plasmid from which the sixth may have developed. Four strains carried two plasmids each. In two of these strains, a plasmid with a tetracycline marker (Tc), or possibly the tetracycline marker alone, recombined frequently with the Sm Sp Su Cm plasmid without destroying any known function of the latter. The possibility that Tc is carried on a translocation sequence is discussed.