• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.203-208
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to investigate the pathogenicity and antimicrobial resistance of foodborne pathogens isolated from farmstead cheeses. Twenty-seven isolates, including 18 Bacillus cereus, two Escherichia coli, and seven Staphylococcus aureus, were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect virulence genes and toxin genes, and the antibiotic resistances of the isolates were determined. All E. coli isolates were determined by PCR to be non-pathogenic. Among the 18 B. cereus isolates, 17 isolates (94.4%) were diarrheal type, as indicated by the presence of nheA, entFM, hbIC, cytK and bceT genes, and one isolate (5.6%) was emetic type, based on the presence of the CER gene. Among the seven S. aureus isolates, three (42.9%) had the mecA gene, which is related to methicillin-resistance. Most B. cereus isolates (94.7%) showed antibiotic resistance to oxacillin and penicillin G, and some strains also showed resistance to ampicillin (26.3%), erythromycin (5.3%), tetracycline (10.5%), and vancomycin (5.3%). These results indicate that microbial food safety measures for farmstead cheese must be implemented in Korea because antibiotic resistant foodborne pathogens, with resistance even to vancomycin, harboring virulence genes were found to be present in the final products of farmstead cheese.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.979-985
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• 2010

This study was performed to detect enterococci strain as an indicator of faecal contamination, to identify of 16S rDNA sequence and vancomycin resistance by MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) test from drinking spring-water samples in Seoul. The detection frequency of enterococci was 42 (19.8%) among 212 samples, and its concentration was ranged from 0 to 110 CFU/100 mL. These results were confirmed the possibility as an indicator microorganisms that similar to the frequency of E. coli detection (t test p-value 0.268, significant level 0.05). Isolated 56 enterococci samples were identified by 16S rDNA sequence data and their NCBI BLAST searching. They were identified to Enterococcus faecalis of 24 samples, E. faecium (10), E. casseliflavus (10), E. gallinarum (3), E. hirae (2), E. durans (2), E. sanguinicola (1). E. faecalis was dominant species that clinical case report of a domestic was similar. Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) of 53 samples showed that vanB and vanC1/C2 type with 2 and 12 case, respectively. These results indicated that the drinking spring-water quarantined to fecal pollution for block out outbreak of gastrointestinal symptom with using such as disinfection process.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.126-130
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• 2013

The major aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of genes that encode multidrug efflux pumps in Enterococci spp. isolates from bovine milk samples and antibiotic resistance patterns of these strains. Of the 245 isolates, 44.1% showed ampicillin resistance, 79.2% showed erythromycin resistance, 76.3% showed tetracycline resistance and 36.3% showed chloramphenicol resistance. In case of vancomycin and ciprofloxacin, all of the isolates were susceptible to these antibiotics. Of the 245 enterococcal isolates, 82.1% have MFS type eme(A) gene, 72.7% have ABC type efr(A) gene, 77.1% have ABC type efr(B) gene, and 71.8% have ABC type lsa gene. In case of Enterococcus faecalis, the original strain for these genes, 92.5% have eme(A), 87.4% have efr(A), 88.4% have efr(B), and 88.4% have lsa. Interestingly, in case of different species of Enterococci, eme(A) was also detected in four strains of E. faecium, seven strains of E. avium, four strains of E. durans and two strains of E. raffinosus. efr(A) was also detected in two strains of E. faecium and two strains of E. durans and efr(B) was also detected in four strains of E. faecium, five strains of E. avium and four strains of E. durans. This means the possibility of co-transfer of resistance genes between Enterococci species in natural environment. These results are the first report describing the presence of same multidrug efflux pumps in different species of Enterococci in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.415-423
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was performed in order to evaluate antibiotic resistance and analyze the multiple antibiotic resistance of food-borne pathogens isolated from indoor air and an air cleaner at a lunch room in a child care center. Methods: An antibiotic test of food-borne pathogens, including four Staphylococcus aureus and 23 Bacillus cereus was conducted through the disk diffusion method from Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute. Results: All Staph. aureus was resistant to Ampicillin and Penicillin, while B. cereus was also resistant to Ampicillin, Cefepime and Penicillin. All isolates showed Vancomycin susceptibility but three out of four Staph. aureus and all B. cereus were resistant to Oxacillin. Staph. aureus and B. cereus presented two or more multiple antibiotic resistances. Conclusions: The results indicated that food-borne pathogens isolated from indoor air and an air cleaner at a lunch room in a child care center showed multiple antibiotic resistances. The repeated control of indoor environment quality is required and continuous surveillance of antibiotic resistant strains is demanded.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.949-955
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• 2021

Previously, our research group isolated Bifidobacterium breve IDCC4401 from infant feces as a potential probiotic. For this study, we evaluated the safety of B. breve IDCC4401 using genomic and phenotypic analyses. Whole genome sequencing was performed to identify genomic characteristics and investigate the potential presence of genes encoding virulence, antibiotic resistance, and mobile genetic elements. Phenotypic analyses including antibiotic susceptibility, enzyme activity, production of biogenic amines (BAs), and proportion of D-/L-lactate were evaluated using E-test, API ZYM test, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and D-/L-lactic acid assay respectively. The genome of B. breve IDCC4401 consists of 2,426,499 bp with a GC content of 58.70% and 2,016 coding regions. Confirmation of the genome as B. breve was provided by its 98.93% similarity with B. breve DSM20213. Furthermore, B. breve IDCC4401 genes encoding virulence and antibiotic resistance were not identified. Although B. breve IDCC4401 showed antibiotic resistance against vancomycin, we confirmed that this was an intrinsic feature since the antibiotic resistance gene was not present. B. breve IDCC4401 showed leucine arylamidase, cystine arylamidase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, and α-glucosidase activities, whereas it did not show production of harmful enzymes such as β-glucosidase and β-glucuronidase. In addition, B. breve IDCC4401 did not produce any tyramine, histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, or 2-phenethylamine, which are frequently detected BAs during fermentation. B. breve IDCC4401 produced 95.08% of L-lactate and 4.92% of D-lactate. Therefore, our findings demonstrate the safety of B. breve IDCC 4401 as a potential probiotic for use in the food industry.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.354-359
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• 2003

Multiplex-PCR protocols were designed in order to make a rapid identification of MRSA. MecA, femB, and 165 rRNA genes were amplified for making a detection of MRSA. The incidence of MRSA in the clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus was examined by using a multiplex-PCR assay. The mecA gene was detected in 266 strains out of 336 clinical isolates of S. aureus, thus the incidence of MRSA was approximately 76.5%. The MRSAs of 247 strains (96.1%) showed resistance to more than eight species of the antimicrobial agents tested. The isolates of MRSA showed 27 different antimicrobial-resistant patterns. The results indicate that many different MRSA strains having high multidrug resistance are actually prevalent in Korea. Also, VISA was screened from the MRSA. Two strains were grown on the BHI agar plate supplemented with $8\;\mu\textrm{g}/ml$ of vancomycin at a frequency of $1/10^8$ colony forming units or higher.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.174-180
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• 2018

Objective: Clostridium difficile Infection (CDI) is one of the common nosocomial infections. As elderly population increases, the proper treatment has been emphasized. We investigated the risk factors associated with CDI unimprovement in elderly patients. Furthermore, we performed drug use evaluation of old CDI patients and oldest-old CDI patients. Methods: It was a retrospective study using electronic medical record at Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center (KBSMC) from January 2016 to December 2017. Seventy three patients aged 65 years or older, diagnosed with CDI by Clostridium difficile Toxin B Gene [Xpert] were screened and they were assessed for risk factors regarding unimprovement status. We also evaluated drug use evaluation in old patients ($65{\leq}age$<80) and oldest-old patients ($80{\leq}age$) by assessing the use of initial therapy, severity, dose, route, treatment course, days of use, total days of use and treatment outcome of initial therapy. Results: Out of 73 patients aged over 65 years, four patients were excluded because they did not receive any treatment. There were 31 improved patients and 38 unimproved patients after initial therapy. We were able to find out patients with surgical comorbidity or endocrine comorbidity (especially, diabetes mellitus) had 2.885 more risk of becoming unimproved than those patients without surgical comorbidity or endocrine comorbidity. Drug use evaluation for CDI was generally fair, but vancomycin as initial therapy is more recommended than metronidazole. Conclusion: Although age, antibiotics exposure, use of antacids are all important risk factors for CDI, our result did not show statistical significance for these risk factors. However, the study is meaningful because the number of elderly population keeps increasing and recently updated guideline suggests the use of vancomycin as drug of choice for CDI.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.54-59
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• 2013

Three isolates, E. faecium P1, P2 and P3, from intestinal drugs of three phamaceutical companies, four clinical vancomycin resistant isolates, E. faecium V1, V2, V3 and E. faecalis V4, and three isolates, E. faecalis DW01, DW07 and DW14, from infant feces were tested for the presence of virulence genes, ace, agg, esp, efaA, gelE, sprE, vanA and vanB as well as fsrABC, regulatory genes of gelE and sprE, cylMBA, cytolysin activation genes and cpd, cob and ccf, pheromone genes by PCR and for their phenotype activities such as protease, biofilm formation, cell clumping and hemolysis. The genes encoding cell surface adherence proteins, ace, agg, esp and efaA, were predominantly amplified from the vancomycin resistant strain V4 and the fecal isolates DW01, DW07 and DW14. Both protease and biofilm formation activity were detected only from E. faecalis V4 from which the PCR products of gelE and spreE as well as fsrABC were amplified. The pheromone genes were amplified from the V4, DW01, DW07 and DW14 strains and these strains showed clumping activity. Biofilm formation was observed from the strains DW01, DW07 and DW14, all of which produced PCR products of pheromone, and V4 as well. Whole cytolysin regulator genes were amplified from DW01, DW07 and DW14 and ${\beta}$-hemolysis activity was detected from these strains. Any virulence genes or activities except the pheomone gene ccf were not detected from the pharmaceutical isolates, E. faecium P1, P2 and P3.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.24-32
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• 2003

Purpose : Nosocomial infection with Staphylococcus aureus, especially methicillin resistant S. aureus, has become a serious concern in the neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of this study is to investigate the virulence factors, and the relationship between the antibiotic resistance and the associated genes of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from nasal cavity of neonates. Methods : Fifty one isolates of S. aureus were obtained from nasal swab taken in 28 neonates in the NICU and nursery of Pusan National University Hospital between February and May, 2001. They were tested in regard to antibiotic susceptibility, coagulase test and typing, plasmid DNA profile, as well as reactivity to enterotoxin A-E(sea, seb, sec, sed, see) genes and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1(tst) gene by polymerase chain reaction(PCR). Associated genes such as mecA, mecR1, mecI, and femA were also determined by PCR. The origin of MRSA strains was assessed using DNA fingerprinting by arbitrarily-primed polymerase chain reaction(AP-PCR). Results : Twenty three(45.1%) and six(11.8%) isolates were resistant to oxacillin and vancomycin respectively. Multidrug resistance to three or more of the antibiotics tested was observed in 51.0% of the isolates. Forty two isolates were coagulase positive and twenty two isolates had mecA gene. Sixteen isolates had both mecA and femA genes and had type I-III plasmids. 64.7% of isolates carried sec gene, and 80.4% carried tst gene. DNA fingerprinting by AP-PCR for 12 MRSA strains showed 10 distinct patterns, suggesting different origins. Conclusion : We confirmed that the prevalence of nasal carriage of S. aureus and the incidence of antimicrobial-resistant S. aureus, especially vancomycin resistance, is very high in neonates who were admitted in NICU and nursery. It is possible that these pathogens are responsible for serious nosocomial infections in neonates. The need for improved surveillance and continuous control of pathogens is emphasized.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.4 s.71
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• pp.647-651
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• 2005

The major causative bacteria of food poisoning were Salmonella spp. $(35.6\%)$, Staphylococcus aureus $(11.3\%)$ and Vibrio parahaemolyticus $(3.2\%)$ in our country. In this study we attempted isolation of S. aureus from stools of patients with diarrhea. Sixty-four strains $(9.1\%)$ were isolated from 704 the stools of patients with diarrhea. The enterotoxin was detected from 29 isolates $(45.3\%)$: 24 isolates $(37.5\%)$, 3 isolates $(4.7\%)$ and 2 isolates $(3.1\%)$ were A, B and C type, respectively. In the antibiotic susceptibility, 63 isolates $(98.4\%)$ were resistant to penicillin, 60 isolates $(93.8\%)$ to ampicillin, 35 isolates $(54.7\%)$ to erythromycin, 32 isolates $(50.0\%)$ to gentamycin, 22 isolates $(34.4\%)$ to tetracycline and 20 isolates $(31.3\%)$ to oxacillin. All of S. aureus isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol and vancomycin, 20 isolates $(31.3\%)$ were methicillin-resistance S. aureus (MRSA). MRSA isolation rate was higher in male $(35.7\%)$ than female $(26.3\%)$. With the exception of two isolates which were resistant only to penicillin, sixty-one isolates were multiple antibiotic resistance.