Arrangement of the vanA gene cluster in enterococci of different ecological origin

Glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (vanA) isolated from infections in humans, from non-hospitalized humans, from sewage, from animal feces and from meat products in Germany (20 Enterococcus faecium and one Enterococcus hirae) were investigated for the arrangement of the genes in the vanA gene cluster by means of overlapping PCR with five primer pairs. In 20 of these strains, the vanA gene clusters were uniform which suggests a horizontal spread among different ecosystems. In one clinical isolate a rearrangement was detected in the vanY-vanZ region.