Definitive Phage Type Research Articles

Antimicrobial drug resistance in non-typhoidal salmonellas from humans in England and Wales in 1999: decrease in multiple resistance in Salmonella enterica serotypes Typhimurium, Virchow, and Hadar.

In 1999 the incidence of multiple drug resistance (to four or more antimicrobials) in non-typhoidal salmonellas from humans in England and Wales fell in isolations of Salmonella enterica serotypes Typhimurium, Virchow, and Hadar. This fall has been most noticeable in S. Typhimurium, where 59% of isolates were multiresistant compared to 81% in 1996. The main reason for this has been a 75% decline in isolations of multiply-resistant S. Typhimurium definitive phage type (DT) 104 (MR DT104) since 1996. Nevertheless MR DT104 remains second to S. Enteritidis phage type 4 as the most common strain in cases of human salmonellosis in England and Wales. Multiple resistance has also remained high in S. Hadar, with 49% of isolates resistant to four drugs or more compared to 56% in 1996. Isolates with decreased sensitivity to ciprofloxacin (minimal inhibitory concentration: 0.25-1.0 mg/L) have increased in incidence in S. Enteritidis, S. Virchow, and S. Hadar; in S. Hadar 70% of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin at this level. It is hoped that Codes of Practice introduced by some pharmaceutical companies, governments, professional organisations, and others to combat the unnecessary prophylactic use of fluoroquinolones in animal husbandry will not result in a reduction in the incidence of resistance to ciprofloxacin in salmonella organisms causing infections in humans.

Changes in Antimicrobial Resistance amongSalmonella entericaSerovar Typhimurium Isolates from Humans and Cattle in the Northwestern United States, 1982–1997

We compared antimicrobial resistance patterns of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (ST) of isolates from humans (n = 715) and cattle (n = 378) in the Pacific Northwest from 1982 through 1997. The major changes in antimicrobial resistance can be attributed to the widespread clonal dissemination of multidrug-resistant definitive phage type 104 ST.

An outbreak of multidrug-resistant, quinolone-resistant Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium DT104.

Food-borne salmonella infections have become a major problem in industrialized countries. The strain of Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium known as definitive phage type 104 (DT104) is usually resistant to five drugs: ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and tetracycline. An increasing proportion of DT104 isolates also have reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones. The Danish salmonella surveillance program determines the phage types of all typhimurium strains from the food chain, and in the case of suspected outbreaks, five-drug-resistant strains are characterized by molecular methods. All patients infected with five-drug-resistant typhimurium are interviewed to obtain clinical and epidemiologic data. In 1998, an outbreak of salmonella occurred, in which the strain of typhimurium DT104 was new to Denmark. We investigated this outbreak and report here our findings. Until 1997, DT104 infections made up less than 1 percent of all human salmonella infections. The strain isolated from patients in the first community outbreak of DT104 in Denmark, in 1998 was resistant to nalidixic acid and had reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones. The outbreak included 25 culture-confirmed cases. Eleven patients were hospitalized, and two died. The molecular epidemiology and data from patients indicated that the primary source was a Danish swine herd. Furthermore, the investigation suggested reduced clinical effectiveness of treatment with fluoroquinolones. Our investigation of an outbreak of DT104 documented the spread of quinolone-resistant bacteria from food animals to humans; this spread was associated with infections that were difficult to treat. Because of the increase in quinolone resistance in salmonella, the use of fluoroquinolones in food animals should be restricted.

Analysis of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium by phage typing, antimicrobial susceptibility and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

Three typing methods commonly used for bacteria--phage typing, antimicrobial susceptibility and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)- were used to characterise 64 Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium isolates from individual adult patients from Nairobi, Kenya. The isolates encompassed 11 definitive phage types (DTs), which fell into eight PFGE clusters; 31.3% of isolates were either untypable or reacted nonspecifically with the phages used for typing and 26.6% were of DT 56. Plasmids of c. 100 kb were responsible for self-transferable multiresistance among the isolates. Analysis by PFGE and phage type demonstrated that multiresistant Typhimurium strains causing diarrhoea and invasive disease were multiclonal.

Clonal Relationship of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Phage Type DT104 in Germany and Austria

A new epidemic clone of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium designated definitive phage type (DT) 104 has been emerging since 1990 to become most common type among S. Typhimurium isolates in Germany and Austria. Molecular fingerprinting (PFGE-pattern, plasmid profiles, IS200 pattern, ribotype, ERIC-type, OMP and MLE patterns) revealed the majority of the DT104 isolates to have clonal identity; they were designated as type 1 (about 95%). Moreover, clonal type 1 of DT104 was found to occur in sensitive as well as in a range of multiply drug-resistant variants and in a variety of plasmid profile types (in particular with small cryptic plasmids in the range of 1.0 to 5.0 Md). Since the clonal type 1 of DT104 has been identified among isolates from other countries, too, including such from the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and the Netherlands, its pandemic spread in man indicates that the import/export of this pathogen continues. About 5% of the DT104 isolates have been identified as genetically diverse indicating the independent appearance of the same multiple drug resistance and phage pattern phenotype among different Salmonella ancestor strains.

Incidence of quinolone resistance over the period 1986 to 1998 in veterinary Salmonella isolates from Germany.

A total of 24,591 nonhuman salmonella strains isolated in Germany between 1986 and 1998 were examined for their resistance to nalidixic acid by an agar diffusion method. The rate of resistance (inhibition zone, </=13 mm) ranged from 0.2% in 1986 to a peak of 14. 8% in 1990. Between 1991 and 1998 the MICs for nalidixic acid-resistant strains ranged from more than 256 microg/ml for nalidixic acid to between 0.25 and 128 microg/ml for enrofloxacin. In the early 1990s a particularly high incidence of fluoroquinolone resistance (49.5%) was seen among isolates of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (Salmonella Typhimurium) definitive phage type 204c that mainly originated from cattle. Among isolates from poultry an increase in the incidence of nalidixic acid resistance to a peak of 14.4% was observed in 1994. This peak was due to the presence of specific resistant serotypes, mainly serotypes Hadar, Saintpaul, Paratyphi B (D-tartrate positive; formerly serotype Java) and Newport. Such strains exhibited a decreased susceptibility to enrofloxacin (MIC, 1 microg/ml). Among isolates from pigs the peak incidence of resistance was reached in 1993, with 7.5% of isolates resistant to nalidixic acid and enrofloxacin. The study demonstrates an increase in the incidence of strains that are resistant to nalidixic acid and that have decreased susceptibility to enrofloxacin after the licensing of enrofloxacin. In addition, the number of other serotypes that exhibited nalidixic acid resistance or reduced enrofloxacin susceptibility increased among the total number of isolates investigated between 1992 and 1998.

Comparison of two Salmonella enteritidis phage typing schemes.

The comparison of two phage typing schemes for Salmonella enteritidis was performed. A total of 517 strains were phage-typed according to the schemes of Lalko [27] and Ward et al. [21]. Strains were isolated from food-poisoning outbreaks and other common sources in Poland, between 1986-1995. Above 99% of all strains tested were differentiated to the definitive phage type using the Lalko collection of typing phages. Phage types 1 and 7 (PTs 1, 7) were the most isolated. The typing phages of Ward enabled to assign 56.5% of all strains (a total of 14 phage types were presented), 37.1% - reacted with phages without showing any of the designated phage types and 6.4% were untypable. Phage type 8 (PT8) predominated. The majority of Salmonella enteritidis strains from one phage type outbreaks of Lalko presented different types of lytic reactions with the Ward phages. Only the correspondence of Salmonella enteritidis PT7 of Lalko with PT8 of Ward et al. [21] was observed.

Increasing incidence of resistance to trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin in epidemic Salmonella typhimurium DT104 in England and Wales.

Salmonella typhimurium definitive phage type (DT) 104 (= DT104) with chromosomally-encoded resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphonamides, and tetracyclines (= R-type ACSSuT) has become increasingly common in humans in England and

Phage type/biotype groups of Salmonella typhimurium in Scotland 1974-6: variation during spread of epidemic clones.

Biotyping by the scheme of Duguid et al. (1975) of 2010 cultures of Salmonella typhimurium received by the Scottish Salmonella Reference Laboratory in 1974--6, the definitive phage types of which were known, revealed 137 different phage type/biotype groups. Four major epidemic clones, comprising 52% of the cultures, were recognized: 1/2a, 49/26a, 56/17g and 141/9f. The sources of each of these four groups of strains were primarily bovine (587 cultures) and human (361), suggesting a close association between infections in the two hosts. Epidemiological evidence showed that most of the outbreaks were caused by cultures of a single phage type/biotype, suggesting that both phage typing and biotyping characters were usually stable in the course of spread of epidemic strains. Thirty-two of the 63 phage types contained strains of more than one biotype. Cultures from 11 of the phage types were of two or more closely related biotypes and those from 21 others were of unrelated or distantly related biotypes. The combined use of phage typing and biotyping made it possible to detect occasional variations in the phage type or biotype in epidemic clones during their spread, e.g. phage type 49 to 204, 56 to 193, 141 to 193 and biotype 2a to 10a, 9f to 9bf, or 9cf, 26a to 26f.