Comparison of antibiotic resistance and virulence factors in Enterococcus faecalis isolates isolated from animal and human sources

Enterococci are an important and diverse group of bacteria that are known to be resistant to most antibiotics used to treat diseases. In this cross-sectional study, 104 samples of red meat and 1000 urine samples suspected of urinary tract infection in the border city of Kermanshah were examined for Enterococcus faecalis. First, the samples were approved by biochemical and molecular methods, then in order to evaluate their ability to produce biofilm, Microtiter Plate method was used and their sensitivity to antibiotics was also determined by Kirby-Bayer method. Enterococcus faecalis infection in human samples and red meat samples was reported to be 5% and 40.38% respectively. In the strains isolated from red meat samples, the highest resistance was reported to be to Streptomycin while the lowest resistance was to Vancomycin. In the human isolate samples, the highest resistance was reported to be to Co-trimoxazole ,while the lowest resistance was to Nitrofurantoin . In strains isolated from red meat, ebp A, ebp B and ebp C were reported to be 71.43%, 59.52% and 64.28% respectively. No statistically significant relationship was observed between biofilm production and ebp genes in these isolates. However, in strains isolated from urine, a significant relationship was detected between ebp genes and biofilm production. Similarly, it was reported that there was no statistically significant relationship between the meat type and the virulence gene type. But, the findings of the study showed a significant relationship between the frequency of efa A, gel E, ace and esp genes.