| Abstract | Ampicillin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (ARE) has rapidly emerged worldwide and is one of the most important pathogens. However, very few reports are available on ARE isolates from canine clinical cases. The objective characterize ARE strains of canine clinical origin from a veterinary teaching hospital in Canada and to compare strains. Ten ARE strains from dogs and humans were characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), electrophoresis (PFGE), antibiotic susceptibility and biofilm activities, presence of rep-families, CRISPR genes. All ARE strains (n = 10) were resistant to ciprofloxacin and lincomycin. Resistances to tetracycline and to high concentrations of gentamicin, kanamycin and streptomycin (n = 5) were also observed. Canine be susceptible to vancomycin whereas resistance to this antibiotic was observed in human strains. PBP5 showing mutations at 25 amino acid positions. Fluoroquinolone resistance was attributable to ParC, Data demonstrated that all canine ARE were acm (collagen binding protein)-positive and that most harbored encoding for a cell wall adhesin. Biofilm formation was observed in two human strains but not in canine strains. families were observed per strain but no CRISPR sequences were found. A total of six STs (1, 18, 65, 202, 205, with one belonging to a new ST (ST803). These STs were identical or closely related to human hospital report describes for the first time the characterization of canine ARE hospital-associated strains in Canada importance of prudent antibiotic use in veterinary medicine to avoid zoonotic spread of canine ARE. © 2013 Tremblay, Charlebois, Masson and Archambault. |
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