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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2002, p. 6457-6461, Vol. 68, No. 12
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.12.6457-6461.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Humans and Imported Chickens in Japan

Department of Microbiology,¹ Laboratory of Bacterial Drug Resistance, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511,⁵ Infection Control Team, Kagoshima University Hospital,² Department of Pediatrics, Kagoshima University School of Medicine, Sakuragaoka 8-35-1, Kagoshima 890-8520,³ Department of Bacterial and Blood Products, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Musashi-Murayama, Tokyo 208-0011, Japan⁴

Received 4 March 2002/ Accepted 23 August 2002

The phenotypes and genotypes of 22 VanA-type vancomycin-resistant enterococci that had been isolated in Japan were examined. The VanA resistance determinant was plasmid mediated in each of the 22 strains. Of the 22 strains, 8 were isolated from different patients and 11 and 3 were obtained from different samples of chickens imported from Thailand and France, respectively. Three of the strains that were isolated from patients and the 11 strains isolated from the Thai chickens showed high-level vancomycin resistance (MICs, 512 to 1,024 µg/ml) and low-level teicoplanin resistance (MICs, 0.5 to 4 µg/ml). Each of these strains had three amino acid substitutions in the N-terminal region of the deduced VanS sequence. L50 was converted to V, E54 was converted to Q, and Q69 was converted to H compared to the vanS gene sequence of Tn1546.

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