Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase--producing enterobacteriaceae in the intensive care unit: acquisition does not mean cross-transmission.

Background: In intensive care unit (ICU), infection and colonization by resistant Gram-negative bacteria increase costs, length of stay and mortality. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase--producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) is a group of pathogens increasingly encountered in ICU setting. Conditions that promote ESBL-E acquisition are not completely understood.

Copper homeostasis at the host vibrio interface: lessons from intracellular vibrio transcriptomics.

Recent studies revealed that several vibrio species have evolved the capacity to survive inside host cells. However, it is still often ignored if intracellular stages are required for pathogenicity. Virulence of Vibrio tasmaniensis LGP32, a strain pathogenic for Crassostrea gigas oysters, depends on entry into hemocytes, the oyster immune cells.

Clostridium difficile: New Insights into the Evolution of the Pathogenicity Locus.

The major virulence factors of Clostridium difficile are toxins A and B. These toxins are encoded by tcdA and tcdB genes, which form a pathogenicity locus (PaLoc) together with three additional genes that have been implicated in regulation (tcdR and tcdC) and secretion (tcdE). To date, the PaLoc has always been found in the same location and is replaced in non-toxigenic strains by a highly conserved 75/115 bp non-coding region.

Populations, not clones, are the unit of vibrio pathogenesis in naturally infected oysters.

Disease in oysters has been steadily rising over the past decade, threatening the long-term survival of commercial and natural stocks. Our understanding and management of such diseases are of critical importance as aquaculture is an important aspect of dealing with the approaching worldwide food shortage. Although some bacteria of the Vibrio genus isolated from diseased oysters have been demonstrated to be pathogenic by experimental infection, direct causality has not been established.

A single regulatory gene is sufficient to alter Vibrio aestuarianus pathogenicity in oysters.

Oyster diseases caused by pathogenic vibrios pose a major challenge to the sustainability of oyster farming. In France, since 2012 a disease affecting specifically adult oysters has been associated with the presence of Vibrio aestuarianus. Here, by combining genome comparison, phylogenetic analyses and high-throughput infections of strains isolated before or during the recent outbreaks, we show that virulent strains cluster into two V.

Antimicrobial resistance of Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food and the environment in France over a 10-year period.

In order to assess antimicrobial resistance in Listeria monocytogenes, 202 food and environmental isolates from 1996 to 2006 were tested. Only four strains displayed acquired resistance. Resistance to erythromycin, tetracycline-minocycline, and trimethoprim was evidenced, and the genes erm(B), tet(M), and dfrD, already found in L.

Comparison of four methods, including semi-automated rep-PCR, for the typing of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium.

We have assessed the performance of semi-automated rep-PCR (Diversilab®) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) in comparison to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) for typing a collection of 29 epidemiologically characterized vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE). Sixteen strains that harbored the Tn1546 element were typed by PCR mapping. The discriminative power of the typing methods was calculated by the Simpson's index of diversity, and the concordance between methods was evaluated by the Kendall's coefficient of concordance.

Association between hand hygiene compliance and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus prevalence in a French rehabilitation hospital.

We simultaneously investigated the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and compliance with hand hygiene in the clinical wards of a French rehabilitation hospital. We found that the rate of hand hygiene compliance observed at the patient's bedside was a strong predictor of MRSA prevalence.