Evaluation of Bacteriocin Activities among Enterococcal Poultry Isolates from East Azarbaijan Iran

The objectives of the study were to isolate and characterize the bacteriocin producing enterococci in 30 enterococcal poultry isolates from north-west of Iran and to determine the prevalence of bacteriocin structural genes among them. The obtained isolates were assessed for antibacterial action against 6 indicator strains. The PCR method was applied to detect previously identified enterocin genes. Based on our results 4 (13.3%) of the examined poultry enterococcal isolates were considered as potential bacteriocinogenic strains, all of them identified to be Enterococcus faecium via phenotypic and genotypic examinations. At least one of the detected Bac+ isolates had antibacterial activities against Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus hirea with no activity against Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus. Genes encoding Enterocin A and enterocin LA50A/B are fairly distributed among the studied poultry enterococci.