Antibiotic resistance patterns of enterococci isolated from coastal bathing waters

Recreational water should be considered a risk for enterococcal infections in regions with high utilisation and long exposure periods. A total of 1113 enterococcal isolates was obtained from 1670 bathing water samples from 12 0 bathing areas of seven prefectures in northern Greece. Enterococcus avium , E. raffinosus and E. faecium were the most prevalent species. Single, dou ble and multiple antibiotic resistance patterns were observed in 33.5% 31.0 % and 22.8% of the isolates, respectively. Resistance to erythromycin occur red most frequently, in 57.3% isolates, many of which also exhibited resist ance to ciprofloxacin and rifampicin as well as high-level resistance to ka namycin and streptomycin. The results suggest that bathing water may contri bute to the dissemination of uncommon enterococcal species that exhibit res istance to several antibiotics which are used to treat community-acquired i nfections.