Virulence genes and antibiotic resistance of Yersinia enterocolitica strains isolated from children

Yersinia enterocolitica is a foodborne pathogen which is primarily responsible for gastrointestinal infections. The presence of the virulence genes in Y. enterocolitica strains isolated from children and antimicrobial resistance was studied in this work. The PCR, biotyping and disc diffusion method were used for analysis of Y. enterocolitica strains. Most of Y. enterocolitica strains belonged to biotype 4 and all carried ail, myfA and ystaA genes. Most of them also had the plasmid yadA gene. These genes were also detected in the strains of biotype 2, while in the two strains of biotype 1A only myfA gene was found. The blaA gene was present in all the strains of biotype 4 and 2, while blaB in the strains of biotype 2 and in some of biotype 4 strains. The presence of β-lactamase genes in Y. enterocolitica was not detected in biotype 1A. All strains were resistant to ampicillin, 76.2% and 47.6% were resistant to ticarcillin and piperacillin, respectively. Two strains (9.5%) were resistant to amoxicillin/ clavulanic acid and aztreonam, three (14.3%) to chloramphenicol, four (19%) to amikacin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, six (28.6%) to gentamicin. A few strains of Y. enterocolitica were multidrug resistant. The Y. enterocolitica strains isolated from the faeces of children suffering from diarrhea carried virulence genes and some of them were resistant to antibiotics used in extra-intestinal yersiniosis treatment.