Antimicrobial resistance of Enterococcus spp. isolates from raw beef and meat products

E. Faecalis (67 %) and E. Faecium (13.7 %) were most frequently isolated among enterococci that contaminate cooled and frozen processed meat, follow-up heat-treated meat products and unheated fermented dry salami. Most isolates of both species were resistant to cephalothin (95 and 83 %) and clindamycin (77 and 67 %, respectively). Furthermore, E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates were resistant to erythromycin (44 and 72 %), tetracycline (34.5 and 17.4 %), and streptomycin (13.3 and 4.3 %, respectively). Only a few of the isolates were resistant to ampicillin, ampicillin-sulbactam, chloramphenicol, and vancomycin while all isolates were susceptible to gentamicin, penicillin, and teicoplanin. During the production of heattreated meat products, numbers of resistant isolates increased in spite of the decreasing enterococcal contamination of the samples. An opposite situation was found in the production of fermented dry salami.