POLLUTION AND HEALTH HAZARDS: ENVIRONMENTAL ISOLATES OF Enterococcus faecalis AND Enterococcus faecium CHARACTERIZED FOR VIRULENCE GENES, ANTIBIOTIC AND HEAVY METAL RESISTANCE

Healthcare-associated infections have become an increasing problem. Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium infect patients as human opportunistic pathogens. Previously, we conducted microbiological analysis at the Mololoa River from the city of Tepic in Nayarit, Mexico. Pollution comes from two different sources, sewage and municipal trash confinement leakage. We found several enterococci isolates that were both antibiotic and heavy metal resistant. In the present study, we examined 18 isolated strains from four different sites for the presence of virulence genes (asa1, gelE, hyl, esp and cylA) and determine potential pathogenic enterococci presence. We found that all isolates analyzed lacked either one or all the major virulence genes and were hemolysin negative. We show that in water bodies the presence of potential virulent strains of enterococci is to diverse and other factors may be involved for the developing of disease by this genus of bacteria.