Characteristics of a new epidemic MRSA in Germany ancestral to United Kingdom EMRSA 15

In 1996 a new epidemic MRSA emerged in three hospitals North of Berlin. Thi s strain, Barnim epidemic MRSA, was isolated in 15 hospitals in Northern Ge rmany in 1997 and 29 hospitals through out Germany in 1998. Isolates of this clone are non-typeable by phages, its resistance phenotype is PEN, OXA, ERY, CLI, CIP (genotype: mecA, ermC, mutations in grlA and gy rA). The Sma I macrorestriction pattern corresponds to particular phage group II strains which is confirmed by the 16S-23S rRNA gene spacer pattern. Isolat es of this clone differ by less than three Sma I macrorestriction fragments from isolates of the EMRSA15 clone from the United Kingdom, the most commo n epidemic MRSA isolates in the United Kingdom in recent years. Both epidemic strains produce enterotoxin C and possess the sec determinant for this toxin, the configuration of the mec regulon is mecI(-), mecRB(+), mecRC(+). Both share the same Alu I pattern of PCR amplimers of the 3 ' en d region of the coagulase gene. EMRSA 15 and Barnim EMRSA share a common multilocus sequence type indicatin g a recent, shared evolutionary origin.