Prevalence of colonisation and resistance patterns of vancomycin-resistantenterococci in healthy, non-hospitalised persons in Switzerland

In order to obtain data about the prevalence and the resistance profiles of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in the community, we investigated f ecal samples of employees (n = 1026) from food processing companies of diff erent Swiss cantons. The susceptibility of the isolated VRE-strains against penicillin, ampicillin, tetracyclin, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, strep tomycin and gentamicin as well as the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MI C) for vancomycin and teicoplanin were determined by agar diffusion and mic robroth dilution, respectively. The type of vancomycin-resistance (vanA, va nB, vanC(1), -C-2 or -C-3) was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) . A ratio of 50 samples out of 1026 (4.9%) was found VRE-positive, all of the isolated strains carried the vanA-resistance gene. Compared to recent publ ications from other European countries, these results represent a rather hi gh prevalence of VRE-carriers in the community.