First report of nosocomial outbreak of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium infection among COVID-19 patients hospitalized in a non-intensive care unit ward in Slovakia.

Background: Enterococcus species account for most of the human enterococcal HAI and multidrug-resistant infections and have become a major threat to modern public health. We examine the rise in the number of vancomycin resistant E. faecium blood stream and urinary tract infections in a COVID-19 department during an epidemiologic outbreak investigation to detect and eliminate nosocomial clusters of the bacteria.

Emergence of Novel Sequence Types among Chlamydia Patients in the Republic of Belarus.

(CT) is a major cause of sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of clinical samples from random heterosexual chlamydia patients who were either asymptomatic or reported clinical manifestations of genital chlamydiosis ( = 63) in each of the seven major regions of the Republic of Belarus in 2017-2018 revealed 12 different CT sequence types (STs). We found seven known STs, ST4, ST6, ST9, ST13, ST38, ST95 and ST110, and five novel variants, namely ST271-ST275, which have not been detected elsewhere thus far.

SNP-Based Analysis Reveals Authenticity and Genetic Similarity of Russian Indigenous Grape Cultivars.

9 Russian grape varieties and the European variety Muscat Hamburg were sequenced and genotyped using 527 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) with high minor allele frequency for the first time. The data were coupled with previously identified genotypes of 783 varieties and subjected to parentage and population analysis. As a result, contrary to the historical and ampelographic data published in many sources from 1800 to 2012, only two of the nine Russian varieties (Pukhlyakovskiy Belyi and Sibirkovyi) were related to foreign ones and were obviously imported from Europe to the Russian Empire.

Genetic Evidence of Multiple Introductions of Lumpy Skin Disease Virus into Saratov Region, Russia.

Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) is the causative agent of lumpy skin disease (LSD) that has been recently reported in the South-East and North Asian parts of the Russian Federation. During 2017-2019, there were more than 30 LSD outbreaks in Saratov Region despite active inoculation of cattle with heterologous vaccine. Importantly, the first case of the novel recombinant LSDV strain was reported here in 2017.