Enterococcal isolates carrying the novel oxazolidinone resistance gene optrA from hospitals in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Henan, China, 2010-2014

Abstract

A collection of 1159 enterococcal isolates from five Chinese hospitals were screened for the presence of the novel oxazolidinone resistance gene optrA, which was found in 34 (2.9%) isolates. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing of 29 optrA-carrying Enterococcus faecalis isolates revealed 25 PFGE patterns, and multilocus sequence typing yielded 20 sequence types. Routine surveillance of optrA-positive enterococci in hospitals should be conducted to monitor and counteract their further dissemination. The data of this study may be used as a baseline from which to judge future decreases or increases in optrA-positive enterococci.

Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance; enterococci; linezolid; molecular epidemiology; nosocomial infection; phenicols; tedizolid.