Antimicrobial resistance among enterococci from pigs in three European countries

Enterococci from pigs in Denmark, Spain, and Sweden were examined for susceptibility to antimicrobial agents and copper and the presence of selected resistance genes. The greatest levels of resistance were found among isolates from Spain and Denmark compared to those from Sweden, which corresponds to the amounts of antimicrobial agents used in food animal production in those countries. Similar genes were found to encode resistance in the different countries, but the tet(L) and let(S) genes were more frequently found among isolates from Spain. A recently identified transferable copper resistance gene was found in all copper-resistant isolates from the different countries.