Investigation of esp gene presence from enterococcus faecalis strains isolated from cats

In this study, 130 rectal swab samples taken from cats were involved to enterococci isolation in Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Department of Microbiology. The isolated enterococci were identified by species specific PCR . Multiple drug resistancy genes and enterococcal surface proteins (Esp) were investigated in identified strains. The isolation studies revealed that out of 130 samples, 64 (50 %) enterococci were identified as being 38 (29 %) of them are Enterococcus faecalis and 26 (21 %) of them are Enterococcus faecium. A total of 8 (21 %) strains were detected as carrier of phosphorilation enzyme coding gene and none of teh isolates were detected as esp gene carrier. By this research it is confirmed that, the cats which have close contact with humans, have the risk for exposing the carriage of enterococci, and it is cleared that this situation have to be estimated for examinations and routine laboratory analyses.