Presence of macrolide resistance genes in streptococci and enterococci isolated from pigs and pork carcasses

Abstract

Macrolide and lincosamide (ML)-resistant streptococci and enterococci from tonsillar and colon swabs from 33 pigs and 99 pork carcasses swabs from animals originating from different farms in Belgium were isolated, and their ML resistance phenotypes and genotypes were determined by disk diffusion test and PCR assay, amplifying the ermB gene and the mefA gene. From each of the 33 pigs and 88 of the 99 carcasses' swabs, at least one resistant strain was isolated. The predominant phenotype was the constitutively expressed macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramin B (MLS B) phenotype. This phenotype was most often encoded by the ermB gene. A minority of the strains showed the M phenotype encoded by the mefA gene in streptococci, or the L or ML phenotype.