APHIS/Veterinary Services, Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health has published a three-page April 2009 Info Sheet entitled Commensal Enterococcus on US Swine Sites: Prevalence and Antimicrobial Drug Susceptibility.

The Info Sheet highlights a 17-state study conducted by USDA's National Animal Health Monitoring System, which found at least one culture-positive sample for Enterococcus on 99.3 per cent of sites, 96.1 per cent of barns and 71.4 per cent of pens.

Between two and four different Enterococcus species were isolated on 76.1 per cent of sites. Slightly more than 12 per cent of sites had as many as five or six different species isolated.

Among the 940 isolates were 11 different Enterococcus species, with E. faecalis and E. faecium accounting for 35.3 per cent of isolates.

All available isolates were tested for resistance to a panel of 17 antimicrobial drugs. Resistance to lincomycin was the most common (96.0 per cent of isolates), followed by resistance to tetracycline (81.9 per cent) and flavomycin (57.1 per cent).

No Enterococcus isolates were resistant to vancomycin or linezolid. Only 2.5 per cent of isolates were resistant to gentamicin, and all of those isolates were E. faecalis.

Further Reading

-

You can view the full report by clicking here.