Distribution of phylogroups and co-resistance to antimicrobial agents in ampicillin resistant Escherichia coli isolated from healthy humans and from patients with bacteraemia

In 2002-03, 31 ampicillin resistant faecal isolates were collected from healthy humans. Moreover, 31 ampicillin resistant blood isolates from patients with bacte-raemia were collected in 2000-02. All isolates were tested positive for the pres-ence of blaTEM. Isolates were characterized by minimum inhibitory concentration to antimicrobial agents and examined by PCR to determine their phylogroups.

The phylotyping grouped the faecal samples into A (13%), B1 (10%), B2 (42%), D (19%), NT (16%) while the blood isolates grouped into A (16%), B1 (0%), B2 (48%), D (32%) and NT (3%). The frequency of resistance in faecal and blood isolates (F/B) was: tetracycline (48%/48%), gentamicin (0%/10%), ciprofloxacin (3%,13%), sulfonamide (68%/77%) and trimethoprim (39%/39%).

Conclusion: B2 was the most prevalent phylogroup found both in faecal isolates collected from healthy humans and in blood isolates from patients with bacterae-mia, and co-resistance was frequent in isolates from both sources.