Molecular characterisation and mechanisms of resistance of multidrug-resistant human Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolated in Amiens (France).

Antimicrobial resistance patterns of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolates obtained during the study period were examined. The molecular epidemiology and the mechanisms of resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline were investigated. Resistance to ampicillin increased from 59% between 1996 and 1999 to 62.5% in 2000 and to 66.6% in 2001. Of 51 S. Typhimurium isolates studied, 100% were resistant to ampicillin (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)>256 mg/L) and sulphonamide (MIC range, 128 to >256 mg/L). Ninety-eight percent of isolates were resistant to streptomycin (MIC range, 48-256 mg/L), 92.2% to tetracycline (MIC range, 32 to >256 mg/L), 88.2% to chloramphenicol (MIC>256 mg/L), 21.5% to sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim (MIC>32 mg/L), 5.8% to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (MIC, 32 mg/L) and 1.9% to cefalothin (MIC, 64mg/L). Six resistance phenotypes were found (a-f), with phenotypes a (47%) and b (27.5%) being predominant. Twenty-five (49%) of 51 isolates produced a single beta-lactamase, among which 48% produced PSE-1, 44% produced TEM-1 and 8% produced OXA-1. Among 26 of the 51 isolates, 10 produced PSE-1+OXA-1, 7 produced TEM-1+PSE-1+OXA-1, 6 produced TEM-1+PSE-1, and 3 produced TEM-1+OXA-1. Forty-eight (94.1%) of the 51 isolates had the plasmid-mediated resistance gene flo(ST) to chloramphenicol and tetracycline. Combining enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), 16 distinct patterns were identified, among which patterns IA (35.3%) and IF (27.4%) were considered as epidemic patterns. The dendrogram obtained from S. Typhimurium pulsotypes allowed five clones (S1-S5) to be identified, with two prevalent clones comprising 47.8% (S2) and 27.3% (S4) of the isolates.