COMPARISON OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE PATTERN OF ENTEROCOCCUS FAECALIS NORMAL FLORA AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISOLATES

Background and Aim:Enterococci are bacteria reside in soil, water, surfaces and intestinal lumen of human and animals. These organisms have been known as one the main reasons of opportunistic infections in hospitals.Methods:The main purpose of this study is to compare the antibiotic resistance pattern of the enterococci isolated from 100 stool samples of healthy personnel of hospitals and 45 samples collected from hospital environmental surfaces. Samples were transferred to laboratory and the stool samples were dissolved in PBS buffer. Then they were cultured in ME agar medium. Enterococci species were separated after purification with biochemical tests.Then the antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed by disk agar diffusion method against 14 antibiotics.Results: The results showed that 42%, 81%, 6% and 20% of the E. faecalis strains isolated from the stool specimens were resistant to tetracycline, erythromycin, Vancomycin, and high levels of gentamicin, respectively. These features were 60%, 66%, 10%, and 30% for the strains isolated from hospital surfaces, respectively.Conclusion:These results confirms that the normal flora and environmental enterococci may be the source of antibiotic resistance genes, as a problem. There are some concerns about the normal flora enterococci and elements of environment, because these organisms can transfer the antibiotic resistance genes to other bacteria by horizontal transmission path

کلیدواژه ها:

Antimicrobial Resistance ، Enterococcus faecalis ، normal Flora ، Environmental Isolates