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High prevalence of the recently identified clonal lineage ST1299/CT3109 vanA among vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus

Giuseppe Valenza1, David Eisenberger2, Jan Esse1

  • 1Mikrobiologisches Institut-Klinische Mikrobiologie, Immunologie und Hygiene, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.

Msphere
|August 27, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) strains, particularly the ST1299/CT3109 vanA lineage, are prevalent in Erlangen wastewater. This suggests community origins and potential for widespread transmission in Germany.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genomics
  • Environmental Science

Background:

  • Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) hospital infections are a growing concern.
  • Previous studies identified specific VREfm clonal lineages in hospital patients.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To detect VREfm in Erlangen city wastewater.
  • To characterize the molecular features of wastewater VREfm strains.
  • To determine if VREfm originates from the community or is linked to hospital infections.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 244 VREfm strains from raw wastewater using core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST).
  • Further investigation of 20 strains for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Main Results:

  • The ST1299/CT3109 vanA lineage, resistant to vancomycin and tetracycline, was highly prevalent (27.9%) in wastewater.
  • Two major clusters were identified: Cluster I with hospital-adapted vanB lineages (ST117/CT71) and Cluster II with ST1299/CT3109 vanA.
  • The ST1299/CT3109 vanA lineage possesses virulence genes pilA and prpA.

Conclusions:

  • The high prevalence of ST1299/CT3109 vanA in wastewater suggests community origin and spread outside hospitals.
  • Wastewater VREfm poses a significant potential for future dissemination in Germany.
Keywords:
Enterococcus faeciumST117/CT71ST1299/CT3109core genome multilocus sequence typingsingle nucleotide polymorphismsvancomycin-resistancewastewater

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