Objective: To characterize hematolysis of Enterococcus from sheep.
Methods: Using plate assay (PA), contact hemolysis (CH), supernatant assay (SA), culture hemolysis (CLH) and PCR, we studied hemolysis characteristics of 11 Enterococcus clinical isolates, 30 isolates from healthy sheep, a standard G-Streptococcus and a standard Enterococcus.
Results: Rabbit blood and sheep blood were not hemolysising in the 11 clinical isolates analyzed by SA and CH. Of the clinical isolates 63.6% had beta-hemolysis with rabbit blood and 36.4% had ALPHA-hemolysis with sheep blood analyzed by PA and CLH assay. Of the cylA gene 63.6% was detected in clinical isolates, the sequence of cylA gene was 99.3% homologous with cylA of plasmid pAD1 (GenBank accession number: L37110). J-hemolysis had 53.3% in rabbit blood, alpha-hemolysis and beta-hemolysis in sheep blood had 53.3% and 43.3% respectively in 30 healthy sheep initial isolates with PA. Only 6% had hemolytic capacity in rabbit blood after second generations. The cylA gene was not detected in 30 healthy sheep isolates by PCR. Standard Enterococcus strain of alpha-hemolysis of sheep blood had no hemolysis of rabbit blood.
Conclusion: The red blood cells could induce enterococci hemolysis secreting in the bacteria growth. The result was different with the Phenotype and the Genotype.