Inducible, transferable resistance to vancomycin in Enterococcus faecium, D399

Enterococcus faecium D399 was isolated from the blood and peritoneal abscess of a patient with intraabdominal sepsis. The patient had not been treated with vancomycin, but the strain was found to be resistant with a MIC of 1000 mg/l. Resistance was inducible and transferable (probably by conjugation) to JH2-2, and correlated with induction of synthesis of a 39 kDa protein. This mechanism appears to be identical to that previously described for E. faecalis A256, suggesting that dissemination of this form of glycopeptide resistance has already occurred. The resistance phenotype of D399, however, differed somewhat from that found in other enterococcal strains with inducible resistance.