[Resistance to antibiotics and resistance factors in Salmonella wien strains isolated in Sicily].

The majority of the strains of S. wien isolated in Sicily were resistant to six different antibiotics, showing the same resistance pattern (ASKCTSu) observed in strains isolated in other provinces of Italy. After conjugation with E. coli K12, the transfer of the whole pattern or of various groups of resistances was observed, which suggests the presence of several co-existent R plasmids. The results obtained suggest that the various outbreaks occurred in Italy have the same origin. They can be correlated with the epidemic of S. wien with the same transferable pattern of antibiotic resistance, spread in France in recent years from Algiers.