• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.407-413
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• 2004

Specimens collected from various pyogenic lesions of dogs were culturally examined for staphylococci and all staphylococcal isolates obtained from the specimens were also tested for susceptibility to 14 antimicrobial agents. A total of 123 isolates of staphylococci were identified. Of these, 120 were Staphylococcus intermedius and 3 were S aureus. All isolates were susceptible to oxacillin, cefazolin, cephalothin and amikacin, whereas more than 85% of the isolates were resistant to ampicillin, penicillin G and tetracycline. S intermedius isolates could be divided into 8 different biotypes by biotyping with the most common type accounting for 66.7% of the isolates. One hundred and seventeen(97.5%) isolates could be also divided into 26 different antibiogram patterns. The predominant antibiogram type accounted for 34.2% of the isolates. Antibiogram typing was found to be effective in distinguishing epidemiologically related isolates of S intermedius.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.44 no.2 s.138
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• pp.117-125
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• 2006

Genetic diversity of 18 Acanthamoeba isolates from ocean sediments was evaluated by comparing mitochondrial (mt) DNA RFLP, 18S rDNA sequences and by examining their cytopathic effects on human corneal epithelial cells versus reference strains. All isolates belonged to morphologic group II. Total of 16 restriction phenotypes of mtDNA from 18 isolates demonstrated the genetic diversity of Acanthamoeba in ocean sediments. Phylogenetic analysis using 18s rDNA sequences revealed that the 18 isolates were distinct from morphological groups I and III. Fifteen isolates showed close relatedness with 17 clinical isolates and A. castellanii Castellani and formed a lineage equivalent to T4 genotype of Byers' group. Two reference strains from ocean sediment, A. hatchetti BH-2 and A. griffini S-7 clustered unequivocally with these 15 isolates. Diversity among isolates was also evident from their cytopathic effects on human corneal cells. This is the first time describing Acanthamoeba diversity in ocean sediments in Korea.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.513-518
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• 1999

A total of 113 Vibrio sp. strains were examined for plasmid content which were subjected to digestion with restriction enzymes. About the 55% Vibrio spp. have the plasmid more than one. Most of these plasmid various derivatives ranged from $2.4\;kb{\sim}23\;kb$, especially two strains of V. mimicus and one strain of V. furnissii carried one high-molecular weight plasmid (molecular weight ranging between $70\;kb{\sim}100\;kb$). Results of restriction analysis for plasmid of this three strains were by no means the rule. For detection of tdh and ctx gene, the virulence factor involved in the pathogenesis, we carried out the TDH and CT assay, PCR amplification, and hybridization. A total 11 strains were produced TDH, involved in 9 strains of V. parahaemolyticus and 1 strain of V. alginolyticus from clinical isolates and 1 strains of V. mimicus from environmental isolates. In the experiments of tdh gene detection, in all, 3 strains of V. parahaemolyticus from clinical isolates and 2 strains from environmental isolates could be successfully amplified in 400 bp by PCR. The PCR results were consistent with DNA hybridization tests. In the experiments of CT assay, in all, 3 strains of V. cholerae from clinical isolate and 1 strain of V. cholerae from environmental isolates were observed CT-producing. These CT-producing strains amplified in 302 bp by PCR for the detection of ctx gene. All CT-producing strains hybridized with digoxigenin-labeled DNA probe, while CT-negative strains did not hybridize. Also hybridization tests results for detection of ctx gene consistent with PCR.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.216-221
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• 2018

Background: The number of immigrants with tuberculosis (TB) increases each year in South Korea. Determining the transmission dynamics based on whole genome sequencing (WGS) to cluster the strains has been challenging. Methods: WGS, annotation refinement, and orthology assignment for the GenBank accession number acquisition were performed on two clinical isolates from Chinese immigrants. In addition, the genomes of the two isolates were compared with the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, from two native Korean and five native Chinese individuals using a phylogenetic topology tree based on the Multiple Alignment of Conserved Genomic Sequence with Rearrangements (Mauve) package. Results: The newly assigned accession numbers for two clinical isolates were CP020381.2 (a Korean-Chinese from Yanbian Province) and CP022014.1 (a Chinese from Shandong Province), respectively. Mauve alignment classified all nine TB isolates into a discriminative collinear set with matched regions. The phylogenetic analysis revealed a rooted phylogenetic tree grouping the nine strains into two lineages: strains from Chinese individuals and strains from Korean individuals. Conclusion: Phylogenetic trees based on the Mauve alignments were supposed to be useful in revealing the dynamics of TB transmission from immigrants in South Korea, which can provide valuable information for scaling up the TB screening policy for immigrants.

• Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.325-333
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of IMP and OXA genes in clinical strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) that are carriers of the ampC gene. Methods: In this study, 105 clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected. Antibiotic resistance patterns were determined using the disk diffusion method. The strains carrying AmpC enzymes were characterized by a combination disk method. Multiplex-PCR was used to identify resistance and virulence genes, chi-square test was used to determine the relationship between variables. Results: Among 105 isolates of P. aeruginosa, the highest antibiotic resistance was to cefotaxime and aztreonam, and the least resistance was to colictin and ceftazidime. There were 49 isolates (46.66%) that showed an AmpC phenotype. In addition, the frequencies of the resistance genes were; OXA48 gene 85.2%, OXA199, 139 3.8%, OXA23 3.8%, OXA2 66.6%, OXA10 3.8%, OXA51 85.2% and OXA58 3.8%. The IMP27 gene was detected in 9 isolates (8.57%) and the IMP3.34 was detected in 11 isolates (10.47%). Other genes detected included; lasR (17.1%), lasB (18%) and lasA (26.6%). There was a significant relationship between virulence factors and the OX and IMP genes ($p{\leq}0.05$). Conclusion: The relationship between antibiotic resistance and virulence factors observed in this study could play an important role in outbreaks associated with P. aeruginosa infections.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 1987

Vibrio vulnificus septicemia is nor-rare diease in Korea. Carriage rate of the orgaism by shellfish is not well known. In this study performance of SPS agar and SGP broth and effect of storage of specimen in the isolaton was determined using the shellfish specimens collected from the coast and market of Koonsan city. Isolation rate was similar with TCBS and with SPS, but the rate became much highher after enrichment in SGP broth. 80% of oyster speimes were positve when inoculated immediately, but the rate dropped rapidly after storage of specimens at freezing temperature for sometime. All of the isolates fermented lactose in 2 days. A few isolates were not identfiable with API 20E system, because of acid prduction from melibiose. Serover 04 was the frequent isolates.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigated the fluoroquinolone (FQ) resistance and presence of gyrA and grlA gene in 87 Staphylococcus pseudintermedius isolates obtained from clinical samples of dogs and cats. Also, the profiles of FQ resistance compared with methicillin resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) isolates. FQ resistance was observed for enrofloxacin (41.4%), ciprofloxacin (39.1%), norfloxacin (36.8%), ofloxacin and levofloxacin (32.2%, respectively), and moxifloxacin (31.0%). Thirty-eight (43.7%) of 87 S. pseudintermedius isolates were resistant to more than one FQ. Twenty-six (64.5%) of 38 FQ resistant isolates were resistant to all the six FQ tested. Of 38 FQ resistant isolates, gyrA gene was detected in all isolates but grlA gene was not found. Moreover, 19 MRSP isolates were resistant to enrofloxacin (63.2%), ciprofloxacin (57.9%), norfloxacin (52.6%), and ofloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin (47.4%, respectively). FQ resistance were highly prevalence in S. pseudintermedius isolates from dogs and cats. Our results emphasize the prudent use of antimicrobial agents to companion animals is necessary for prevent antimicrobial resistance.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.240-247
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• 2010

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram (-) opportunistic human pathogen causing a wide variety of infections on lung, urinary tract, eyes, and burn wound sites and quorum sensing (QS), a cell density-sensing mechanism plays an essential role in Pseudomonas pathogenesis. In order to investigate the importance of QS in the Pseudomonas infections of Korean patients, we isolated 189 clinical strains of P. aeruginosa from the patients in Pusan Paik Hospital, Busan, South Korea. The QS signal production of these clinical isolates was measured by signal diffusion assay on solid media using reporter strains. While most clinical strains (79.4%) produced the QS signals as similar level as a wild type strain, PAO1 did, where LasR, the initial QS signal sensor-regulator was fully activated, a minority of them (4.2%) produced much less QS signals at the level to which LasR failed to respond. Similarly, while 72.5% of the clinical isolates produced QS signals enough to activate QscR, an another QS signal sensor-regulator, some few of them (9%) produced the QS signals at much lower level where QscR was not activated. For further analysis, we selected 74 clinical strains that were obtained from the patients under suspicion of Pseudomonas infection and investigated the total protease activity that is considered important for virulence. Interestingly, significant portion of them showed very low protease activity (44.6%) or no detectable protease activity (12.2%). When the biofilm-forming ability that is considered very important in chronic infection was examined, most isolates showed lower biofilm-forming activity than PAO1. Similarly, significant portion of clinical isolates showed reduced motility (reduced swarming activity in 51.4% and reduced twitching activity in 41.9%), or non-detectable motility (swarming-negative in 28.4% and twitching-negative in 28.4%). Our result showed that the clinical isolates that produced QS signals at the similar level to wild type could have significantly reduced activities in the protease production, biofilm formation, and motility, and some clinical isolates had unique patterns of motility, biofilm formation, and protease production that are not correlated to their QS activity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.425-429
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• 2003

Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen for cattle, causing various forms of subclinical and clinical mastitis and could be a causative agent of food poisoning, it produces various superantigenic exotoxins which have a great public health significance. A total of 72 S. aureus clinical isolates from dairy farms located in Kyunggi Province Korea were examined for the species identification by biochemical method, and for the detection of $\beta$-lactamase, enterotoxin and other exotoxins genes by PCR. The results of species identification by biochemical method agreed with those of PCR done with species specific primer STA-AU. $\beta$-lactamase is an enzyme closely associated with the resistance to antibiotic penicillin, which is an important means of treatment of mastitis, all the isolates were positive for the presence of genes encoding $\beta$-lactamase, which were reproduced in penicillin susceptibility disc assay. Six types of toxin genes, Staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE)A, SEB, SEC, SEE, toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST-1) and exfoliative toxin A (ET A) were detected in 72 isolates by PCR associated genotypic method in this study, none of the isolates carried the genes for enterotoxin D (SED) and exfoliative toxin B (ETB). The occurrence rate of exotoxin genes rated as 12.5%, and the precision of the PCR identification results has been confirmed using the reference strains.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.138-144
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• 2000

This study was carried out to investigate the pathogenicity of Korea N caninum isolates, KBA-1 and KBA-2 on SCID mouse following 3 different routes of infection. NC-1 was served as reference isolate. The pathogenecity was evaluated by progression of clinical signs, histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Pathogenicity of KBA-2 appears to be stronger than that of KBA-1 but weaker than that of NC-1. Progress of clinical signs and lesion distribution and pattern of each isolates were similar when the isolates were infected either subcatareously or intraperitoneally. However, oral inoculation of tachyzoites failed to induce the infection.