ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and transferability of resistance in tetracycline-resistantEscherichia coliisolates recovered from beef cattle in South Korea. A total of 155E. coliisolates were collected from feces in South Korea, and 146 were confirmed to be resistant to tetracycline. The tetracycline resistance genetet(A) (46.5%) was the most prevalent, followed bytet(B) (45.1%) andtet(C) (5.8%). Strains carryingtet(A) plustet(B) andtet(B) plustet(C) were detected in two isolates each. In terms of phylogenetic grouping, 101 (65.2%) isolates were classified as phylogenetic group B1, followed in decreasing order by D (17.4%), A (14.2%), and B2 (3.2%). Ninety-one (62.3%) isolates were determined to be multidrug resistant by the disk diffusion method. MIC testing using the principal tetracyclines, namely, tetracycline, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, and minocycline, revealed that isolates carryingtet(B) had higher MIC values than isolates carryingtet(A). Conjugation assays showed that 121 (82.9%) isolates could transfer a tetracycline resistance gene to a recipient via the IncFIB replicon (65.1%). This study suggests that the high prevalence of tetracycline-resistantE. coliisolates in beef cattle is due to the transferability of tetracycline resistance genes betweenE. colipopulations which have survived the selective pressure caused by the use of antimicrobial agents.
New shuttle vectors for Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. III. Nucleotide sequence analysis of tetracycline resistance gene of pAM.ALPHA.1 and ori-177.