Bad news from Germany.
Abstract and access to full report here
Escherichia coli producing VIM-1 carbapenemase isolated on a pig farm
...Carbapenems are one of
the most critically important antimicrobials considered as drugs of last choice
in clinical settings. However, during the last few years, the prevalence of
resistance to these antimicrobial agents, especially inPseudomonas and
Enterobacteriaceae, has been increasing worldwide.1–3 In Gram-negative bacteria, the mechanisms of resistance
include the production of β-lactamases (carbapenemases), changes in the
permeability of the membranes (i.e. loss of porins) and efflux pumps. Within
the carbapenemases, the class B metallo-β-lactamases, such as VIM, IMP and NDM,
play an important role because of their worldwide spread among different
bacterial species, which is based on their location on mobile genetic elements.2,4,5
Currently, the
national RESET project (www.reset-verbund.de)
performs several longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of German farms, and
potential extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-carrier organisms are collected
(using MacConkey agar containing 1 mg/L cefotaxime as selective medium). All
isolates sent to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment for further analyses
(n = 221) were tested for their
antimicrobial susceptibility by the CLSI disc diffusion method (CLSI M2-A10 and
M100-S21). They were analysed against a panel of 17 β-lactams (Oxoid, Wesel,
Germany), including ampicillin (10 μg), piperacillin (100 and 30 μg),
ticarcillin (75 μg), cefalotin (30 μg), cefuroxime (30 μg), ceftiofur (30 μg),
ceftriaxone (30 μg), ceftazidime (30 and 10 μg), cefotaxime (30 and 5 μg),
cefpodoxime (10 μg), cefepime (30 μg), cefoxitin (30 μg), aztreonam (30 μg),
imipenem (10 μg), ertapenem (10 μg), meropenem (10 μg) and
amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (30 μg). The 30, 10 and 5 μg amounts for
piperacillin, ceftazidime and cefotaxime, respectively, are the disc
concentrations recommended by EUCAST (www.eucast.org).
The isolates were also tested for their susceptibility …
