Abstract
A total of 189 meat samples including 153 domestic and 36 imported meats were inspected for the isolation of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium. E. faecalis was detected from 113 samples (73.9%, 192 strains) of domestic meats and 26 samples (72.2%, 50 strains) of imported meats. E. faecium was detected from 13 samples (8.5%) of domestic meats and 3 samples (8.3%) of imported meats. To study the potential virulence factors of those isolates, the presence of certain genes, i.e. gelE, asa1, cylA, esp was investigated by PCR. E. faecalis possessing the virulence gene was detected from 97 (63.4%) domestic meats, and 26 (72.2%) imported meats. However, only one E. faecium strain (0.7%) from domestic meat posessed the virulence gene. The common virulence genes in E. faecalis isolated from domestic and imported meat were gelE (77.1% vs. 78.0%), followed by asa1 (50.5% vs. 76.0%), cylA (13.0% vs. 20.0%), and esp (5.2% vs. 12.0%). All strains of E. faecalis possessing either cylA or esp also possessed other virulence genes, and the same encoding combination of genes was found in strains from compromised hosts.
