Screening of the enterocin genes and antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria in Enterococcus strains obtained from different origins.

Antimicrobial activities of 139 Enterococcus isolates (48 E. faecium and 91 E. faecalis) obtained from canine feces, boiler meat samples, swine feces, wild waterfowl feces, and human feces were examined against respective bacteria, including Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Escherichia coli. Bacteriocin (BAC) production assay revealed that the antimicrobial activity against at least one of 6 indicator strains (BAC+ phenotype) was found in 51 (37%) isolates (29 E. faecium and 22 E. faecalis). Twenty-four of 46 isolates positive for at least one of the enterocin structural genes (entA, entB, entL50AB, and cylL) showed a BAC+ phenotype. The existence of other enterocins or nonenterocin factors was implied because the BAC+ phenotype was detected in a total of 27 Enterococcus isolates that had none of the enterocin genes tested. The antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative strains (Salmonella Enteritidis and E. coli) was detected in the 6 Enterococcus isolates that had either the entA, entB, entL50AB or cylL genes. Moreover, the proportion of the antimicrobial activity against L. monocytogenes among the cylL-positive E. faecalis isolates showing beta-hemolysis (10/16) was significantly (p<0.01) higher than among those lacking beta-hemolysis (2/15). The results suggested that certain characteristics are likely to be associated with the antimicrobial activity against specific organisms.