Species and drug resistance of clinical enterococci isolates from Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University

Abstract

Enterococci are medically important Gram positive coccal bacteria. These bacteria are frequently found from clinical samples. Species of enterococci inherit different drug resistance properties and multi-drug resistant enterococci have emerged as a leading cause of nosocomial infection. Conventional method for species identification of these organisms requires more than 10 biochemical tests which is costly and time consuming. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate species distribution and drug resistance of enterococci by employing 2 sets of multiplex PCR using specific primers to detect the 16S rRNA, sodA, ddl, vanC-1, vanC-2/vanC-3, and groEL genes for identification of enterococcal species. Bacterial isolates were obtained from Clinical Microbiology Laboratory of Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University. A total of 396 enterococci were identified as E. faecalis (62.6%), E. faecium (32.3%), E. avium (0.8%), E. gallinarum (0.5%), E. casseliflavus (0.3%), and other enterococci (3.5%).  Most enterococcal isolates were obtained from urine samples. E. faecalis showed drug resistant pattern of gentamycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, while most E. faecium were resistant to ampicillin, penicillin, gentamycin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. Species prevalence and drug resistance of enterococci from this study could be used as a basic information of enterococcal population in the region for controlling treatment management and preventing the spread of drug resistant strains.