• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.48-56
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• 2022

Enterococcus species have been reported to produce unique flavoring ingredients in fermented dairy products. Generally, they were found in cheese and fermented dairy products. Enterococcus spp. produce extracellular polysaccharides and reduce blood cholesterol levels in humans. This study used heat-killed E. faecalis and E. faecium in yogurt production to increase safety during consumption. The addition of heat-killed E. faecalis and E. faecium to milk did not affect the fermentation time of yogurt production, the growth of starter cultures, and the viscosity of yogurt. These results concluded that heat-killed Enterococcus, rather than live Enterococcus, is sufficiently possible and even safer to be added to milk products. Enterococcus species could be used as a safe and functional food additive to fermented milk products and supplements in health foods.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 2007

The antibacterial activity of Korean honey bee venom (KBV) was examined against seven major bacterial mastitis pathogens, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus intermedius, Streptococcus oralis and Streptococcus uberis isolated from infected mammary quarters of cows. Seven bacterial mastitis pathogens were studied for antibacterial activity of the KBV by disc diffusion assay, minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and bacterial count in milk samples. The KBV showed activity against Ent. faecium, E. coli, MRSA, Staph. aureus, Strep. intermedius. The order of susceptibility of the bacteria against the KBV was Staph. aureus>MRSA>E. coli>Strep. intermedius>Ent. faecium>Strep. oralis>Strep. uberis. The MIC against Staph. aureus, MRSA and E. coli were stronger effect as compared with standard drug. The effect of the KBV ($100{\mu}g\;ml^{-1}$) on the viability of Ent. faecium, E. coli, MRSA, Staph. aureus, Strep. intermedius, Strep. oralis and Strep. uberis in milk differed significantly with each other within 12 h incubation period. The results indicate that KBV has significant antibacterial effects against major bacterial mastitis bacteria, Ent. faecium, E.coli, MRSA, Staph. aureus, Strep. intermedius. Results of the study indicate the potential use of KBV as alternative to antibiotic therapy. Further investigations are needed though to confirm its efficacy and its effects on the animals.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.163-168
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• 2005

This study was carried out to investigate the antibiotic resistance pattern of Enterococcus spp. and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolated from chicken feces. All isolates showed high resistance to erythromycin (E) and tetracycline (TE). Of the 63 Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) isolates, 73.0% were resistant to E and 98.4% to TE. Of the 44 Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) isolates, 50.0% were resistant to E and 95.5% to TE. Of the 52 S. aureus isolates, 57.6% were resistant to E and 96.2% to TE. The prevalence of two and three drugs resistance pattern were 28.6% and 17.5% of E. faecalis, 40.9% and 25.0% of E. faecium and 38.5% and 23.1% of S. aureus, respectively. The multiple resistance pattern to six drugs was observed in 1 E. faecalis isolates, and five drugs resistance pattern were seen in 1 E. faecalis, 1 E. faecium and 1 S. aureus isolates. The prevalence of resistant organisms in Korea probably reflects lack of proper antibiotic policy resulting in prolonged and indiscriminate use of antimicrobial agents.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.223-236
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• 2020

In this study, a safety evaluation was conducted to confirm if the Enterococcus faecium CKDB003 strain obtained by selection from a mixed fermentation of fruit and milk is suitable for use as a probiotic. The MIC value for the 10 antibiotics specified in the EFSA guidance was below the acceptable cut-off value. The antibiotic resistance genes aac(6')-li, eatAv, and msr(C) exist by whole genome sequencing, but are in the chromosome and not in the plasmid, thus confirming that there is no possibility of transmission to other microorganisms. It was confirmed that cytolysin (cylA, cylB, cylI, cylL-l, cylL-s, cylM, cylR1, cylR2), aggregation substance (asa1, asp1), collagen adhesion (ace), enterococcal surface protein (esp), endocarditis antigen (efaA), hyaluronidase (hyl) and gelatinase (gelE) were not present in the genome by examining the genes of factors related to virulence. Also, the biochemical analysis showed no toxic enzyme activities, and no virulence genes were detected by the PCR method. Thus, the E. faecium CKDB003 strain can be safely used as a health functional food probiotic, based on the results of the safety assessment.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.176-182
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• 2011

The bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria Enterococcus faecium DB1 was isolated from Korean traditional gajami sikhae. Culture conditions were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) to maximize bacteriocin DB1 production. E. faecium DB1 displayed the highest bacteriocin activity when grown in modified MRS medium containing sucrose, rather than glucose, as a carbon source. The effects of temperature, initial pH, and sucrose concentration were tested to determine the optimum conditions for maximum bacteriocin production by E. faecium DB1. A central composite design was used to control the three variables in the experiment. RSM revealed that the optimum values for bacteriocin production were 27.66 g/L sucrose, temperature of $34.37^{\circ}C$, and an initial pH of 6.54. A 2.08-fold increase in bacteriocin production was obtained with sucrose-containing MRS medium compared to production in standard MRS medium.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.516-520
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• 2018

Bacteriocin is a proteinaceous compound produced by microorganisms showing antimicrobial activities. In this study, the physicochemical properties of the bacteriocin produced by Enterococcus faecium CJNU 2008 strain were characterized. Partially purified bacteriocin showed stabilities against heat treatments at $100^{\circ}C$ for 30 min and $121^{\circ}C$ for 15 min and against solvents treatments such as methanol, ethanol, acetone, acetonitrile and chloroform. The bacteriocin also exhibited stabilities against lipase and ${\alpha}-amylase$ treatments but the stability was abolished at protease treatment, indicating that the antimicrobial agent from E. faecium CJNU 2008 was a proteinaceous bacteriocin. The bacteriocin also showed bactericidal mode of action against Listeria monocytogenes. The molecular mass of the bacteriocin was estimated to be under 6.5 kDa by a tricine-SDS-PAGE analysis. The bacteriocin was purified by HPLC. Further studies toward biochemical analysis of the bacteriocin are needed in near future.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.153-160
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• 2010

The present study was carried out for the isolation of bacteriocin-producing enterococci from indigenous sources. Gram-positive enterococci are known for having the ability to produce enterocins with good antimicrobial potential. A total of 34 strains were isolated from processed dairy products of Pakistan and seven out of them were found to be member of genus Enterococcus on selective enumeration. Biochemical and molecular characterization revealed that four of these isolates (IJ-03, IJ-07, IJ-11, and IJ-12) were Enterococcus faecalis and three (IJ-06, IJ-21, and IJ-31) were Enterococcus faecium. Local processed cheese was the source of all enterococcal isolates, except E. faecium IJ-21 and IJ-31, which were isolated from indigenous yoghurt and butter samples, respectively. Bacterial isolates were sensitive to commonly used antibiotics except methicillin and kanamycin. They also lacked critical virulence determinants, mainly cytolysin (cyl), gelatinase (gel), enterococcal surface protein (esp), and vancomycin resistance (vanA and vanB). Polymerase chain reaction amplification identified that enterocin A and P genes were present in the genome of E. faecium IJ-06 and IJ-21, whereas the E. faecium IJ-31 genome showed only enterocin P genes. No amplification was observed for genes that corresponded with the enterocins 31, AS-48, L50A, and L50B, and ent 1071A and 1071B. There were no signals of amplification found for E. faecalis IJ-11, indicating that the antimicrobial activity was because of an enterocin different from those checked by PCR. Hence, the indigenous bacterial isolates have great potential for bacteriocin production and they had antibacterial activity against a variety of closely related species.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.294-300
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• 2019

To investigate the inhibition effect on pathogenic microbes and the antimicrobial resistance of probiotics, a total of 140 probiotics were isolated from 35 kinds of Korean commercially available Kimchi. Of those, L. plantarum was identified from 53 strains (37.9%), E. faecium from 27 strains (19.3%), and L. rhamnosus from 7 strains (5.0%) using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Sixty nine strains (49.3%) showed overall antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microbes, namely S. Typhi, S. Enteritidis, E. coli O157:H7, S. flexneri, NAG Vibrio, Listeria monocytogenesis, Y. enterocolitica, S. aureus, S. pyogenes, G. vaginalis, C. albicans, and P. acne. The proportions of L. plantarum, E. faecium, and L. rhamnosus strains to pathogenic microbes were 75.5%, 40.7%, and 28.6%, respectively. In addition, a resistance test with 18 antimicrobial agents using a disk diffusion assay revealed a resistance incidence of 98.6% for nalidixic acid, 83.6% for streptomycin, 75.7% for gentamicin 73.6% for vancomycin, 72.1% for norfloxacin, and 67.9% for ciprofloxacin. In conclusion, L. plantarum, L. sakei, and E. faecium strains with various antimicrobial activities and broad antibiotic resistance are useful for treating diarrhea in long-term inpatients and for the alternative use for treating Candida species female vaginitis.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.133-138
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• 2013

In this study, a total of 256 samples of retail raw meats (beef, pork and chicken) and sashimi were investigated for the presence of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium. We isolated a total of 117 E. faecalis and E. faecium from the samples, with contamination rates ranging from 18.8% for sashimi samples to 68.8% of chicken samples. E. faecalis was the predominant species recovered from all of the retail raw meats beef (42.2%), pork (42.2%), chicken (65.6%) and sashimi (12.5%). Among 117 isolates, 61 isolates (52.1%) were resistant to tetracycline, 32 isolates (27.4%) were resistant to erythromycin, 23 isolates (19.7%) were resistant to chloramphenicol, 16 isolates (13.7%) were resistant to ripampin, 10 isolates (8.5%) were resistant to gentamycin, 9 isolates (7.7%) were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 1 isolate (0.9%) was resistant to ampicillin and penicillin G. No resistance to amoxicillin + clavulanic acid and vancomycin was observed. Although no strain was resistant to vancomycin, the vanB gene was observed in 9 of 117 of Enterococcus (7.7%) demonstrating potential risk of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Our results indicate that E. faecalis and E. faecium were highly prevalent in retail raw meats, but most strains were sensitive to tested antibiotics.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.116-124
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• 2012

Identification was performed in March 2008 for the 76 Enterococcus strains isolated from the Han-river, which is used as water supply for Seoul citizens. The antibiotic susceptibility, antibiotic resistant structural analysis, trans-conjugation, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) were also carried out for the isolated strains. Among the isolated strains, 25 strains were E. casseliflavus, 4 strains were E. faecalis and 1 strain was E. hirae. Investigation of antibiotic susceptibility indicated that 15 strains demonstrated tolerance against vancomycin, and that 11 strains of E. faecium and 4 strains of E. casseliflavus were VRE. The vanA gene detection of the VRE strains revealed that 6 E. faecium strains were vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREF) possessing vanA. Analyses of transposon Tn1546 structure containing vanA demonstrated that Km36 and Km37 belonged to Tn1 type, Km20 and Km38 was Tn2 type, and Km39 and Km40 was Tn3 type. PFGE disclosed that among the 6 VREF strains, Km36 and Km37 exhibited equivalent subtype, while the rest 4 strains showed subtypes different to each other. MLST for the 6 VREF strains disclosed that 3 strains were ST78, while the rest 3 strains were ST18, ST192 and ST230, respectively. All these clonal complexes were derived from CC17 which has been isolated from clinical sources. 4 strains belonged to CC78, while the rest 2 strains were CC18 and CC192, respectively.