New Multilocus Sequence Typing Scheme for Enterococcus faecium Based on Whole Genome Sequencing Data
Matěj Bezdíček, Jana Hansliková, Markéta Nykrýnová, Kristýna Dufková, Iva Kocmanová, Petra Kubáčková, Jiřı́ Mayer, Martina Lengerová
Abstract
Enterococcus faecium is one of the most important pathogens causing health care associated infections. One of the main reasons for its clinical importance is a rapidly spreading resistance to vancomycin and linezolid, which significantly complicates antibiotic treatment of infections caused by such resistant strains. Monitoring the spread and relationships between resistant strains causing severe conditions represents an important tool for implementing appropriate preventive measures. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a robust method enabling strain monitoring and comparison at the local, national, and global level. Unfortunately, the current, extensively used MLST scheme does not reflect the real genetic relatedness between individual strains and thus does not provide sufficient discriminatory power. This can lead directly to incorrect epidemiological measures due to insufficient accuracy and biased results.