TABLE 2.

Characterizations of vancomycin-resistant enterococci^a

Species	Strain no.	Patientb	Antimicrobial drug resistance level (MIC, μg/ml)c								Drug resistance pattern	Vanr plasmid type harbored in strain
			Apc	Erm	Gen	Kan	Str	Tet	Tei	Van
E. faecium	FH1	A	256	>128	2	>1,024	1,024	>256	32	256	Apc Erm Kan Str Tet Tei Van	α
E. faecium	FH2	B	256	>128	2	>1,024	512	>256	64	256	Apc Erm Kan Str Tet Tei Van	β
E. faecium	FH3	C	2	4	2	64	64	1	64	512	Tei Van	β
E. faecium	FH4	D	128	>128	2	>1,024	256	>256	64	256	Apc Erm Kan Tet Tei Van	β
E. faecium	FH5	E	64	>128	1	>1,024	1,024	>256	128	512	Apc Erm Kan Str Tet Tei Van	β
E. faecium	FH6	F	64	>128	2	>1,024	1,024	>256	64	256	Apc Erm Kan Str Tet Tei Van	β
E. faecium	FH7	G	128	>128	>256	>1,024	1,024	32	128	512	Apc Erm Gen Kan Str Tet Tei Van	γ
E. faecium	FH8	H	128	>128	>256	>1,024	>1,024	2	128	512	Apc Erm Gen Kan Str Tei Van	γ
E. faecium	FH9	I	128	>128	>256	>1,024	>1,024	128	128	512	Apc Erm Gen Kan Str Tet Tei Van	γ
E. faecium	FH10	J	128	>128	>256	>1,024	>1,024	128	128	>1,024	Apc Erm Gen Kan Str Tet Tei Van	γ
E. avium	FH11	C	16	0.25	2	128	64	16	16	256	Apc Tet Tei Van	β
E. avium	FH12	E	16	0.25	1	64	64	256	16	512	Apc Tet Tei Van	β

^aThe isolation of VanA-type VRE from clinical sources is still rare in Japan (i.e., fewer than 30 cases) (16, 33; N. Fujita, M. Yoshimura, T. Komori, K. Tanimoto, and Y. Ike, Letter, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 42 :2150, 1998; Y. Ike, K. Tanimoto, Y. Ozawa, T. Nomura, S. Fujimoto, and H. Tomita, Letter, Lancet 353:1854, 1999). The presence of VanA VRE was examined in the feces of a total of 1,699 inpatients obtained by the microbiology division of the clinical microbiology of the university hospital of Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Aichi, Japan, between 1 August 1999 and 31 March 2001.

^bAll strains were isolated from feces of patients. E. faecium FH3 and E. avium FH11, and E. faecium FH5 and E. avium FH12, were isolated from patient C and patient E, respectively. Each of the other strains was isolated from a different patient.

^cAbbreviations: Apc, ampicillin resistance; Gen, gentamicin resistance; Kan, kanamycin resistance; Str, streptomycin resistance; Tet, tetracycline resistance; Tei, teicoplanin resistance; Van, vancomycin resistance. The drug resistance levels of ampicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, teicoplanin, and vancomycin were equal to or greater than 16, 64, 1,024, 512, 8, 16, and 64 μg/ml, respectively. Enterococcus strains were grown in Todd-Hewitt broth (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.) throughout this study. Mueller-Hinton broth and Mueller-Hinton agar for the sensitivity disk agar-N (Nissui, Tokyo, Japan) assay were used to test the MICs of antimicrobials. The MICs of the antimicrobials were determined according to the criteria of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards using Mueller-Hinton agar (32).