The changing landscape of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in Australia: A population-level genomic study

RS Lee; A Gonçalves Da Silva; SL Baines; J Strachan; S Ballard; GP Carter; JC Kwong; MB Schultz; DM Bulach; T Seemann; TP Stinear; BP Howden

Journal article

The changing landscape of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in Australia: A population-level genomic study

RS Lee, A Gonçalves Da Silva, SL Baines, J Strachan, S Ballard, GP Carter, JC Kwong, MB Schultz, DM Bulach, T Seemann, TP Stinear, BP Howden

Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy | OXFORD UNIV PRESS | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1093/jac/dky331

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Abstract

Background Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) represent a major source of nosocomial infection worldwide. In Australia, there has been a recent concerning increase in bacteraemia associated with the vanA genotype, prompting investigation into the genomic epidemiology of VREfm. Methods A population-level study of VREfm (10 November-9 December 2015) was conducted. A total of 321 VREfm isolates (from 286 patients) across Victoria State were collected and sequenced with Illumina NextSeq. SNPs were used to assess relatedness. STs and genes associated with resistance and virulence were identified. The vanA-harbouring plasmid from an isolate from each ST was assembled using long-read..

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Funding Acknowledgements

This study was conducted as part of routine work at the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory. R. S. L. is supported by a Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (funding reference no. 152448), S. L. B. holds an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, J. C. K. is supported by an early career fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia (GNT1142613) and B. P. H. has a Practitioner Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (GNT1105905), and is also supported by the Centre of Research Excellence on Emerging Infectious Diseases (National Health and Medical Research Council GNT1102962). The Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory is funded by the Victorian Government, Australia. These funding agencies had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit for publication.