Predominance of vanA genotype among vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus isolates from poultry and swine in Costa Rica

The use of avoparcin as a growth promoter is considered to have selected for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). In Costa Rica, the use of avoparcin for poultry and swine was intensive until the product was withdrawn from the market in 2000. We evaluated the presence of VRE in poultry, swine, and cattle fecal samples obtained during 1998 and 1999. A total of 185 VRE isolates were recovered from 116 out of 893 samples. Enterococcus faecium was the most frequently isolated species (50.8%), being predominant among poultry (71.6%) and swine (37.7%) isolates, but it was not recovered from the bovine samples. The second-most-frequently-isolated species from poultry and swine, respectively, were E. durans (23.2%) and E. faecalis (21.7%). E. casseliflavus was the only species obtained from bovine samples, but it was not found among the avian isolates. An evident predominance of the vanA determinant among vancomycin-resistant enterococcal species from poultry and swine, but not from cattle, was observed and was similar to the situation in European countries before avoparcin was forbidden. The diversity of the vanA determinant in the isolates was assessed by detection. of the IS1251 insertion in the vanSH intergenic region and of the IS1476 insertion in the vanXY intergenic region. However, in none of the 154 vanA(+) isolates recovered in this study were those insertions detected.