RESUMO
Objective To obtain better insights into transmission dynamics of macrolide resistance genes between human and animal Enterococcus strains.Methods The antimicrobial susceptibility to 8 anti-bioties of 52 Enterococci isolated from animal and 55 Enterococci isolated from human was determined.PCR was used to detect the macrolide resistance genes ermB and mefA,tetracycline resistance genes tetM,and the integrase gene int of Tnl545 of the total 107 strains.Forty-nine ermB positive strains were chosen to be se-quenced.Filter mating experiments were taken.Results The resistance rate to erythromycin were 89.09% and 80.77%for isolates from human and animal:and resistance rate to tetracycline were 80.00%and 67.3l%for isolates from human and animal.respectively.All isolated Enterococci strains were found sensi-tive to vancomycin ermB was detected in 61.82% human Enterococci and 53.85% porcine ones.Identical er-mB gene sequences were found in animal and human Enterococci.Transfer of the ermB gene from porcine E.faecalis to human E.feacalis was successful.and the transfer frequency is 1.2×10-5.Conclusion En-terococci have a high resistance rate to erythromycin and some other antibio tics,especially in pediatric iso-lates:but still very sensitive to glycopeptide.ermB was the predominant genes for macrolide and tetracy-cline.Identical ermB gene sequences were present in animal and human Enterococci and that transfer of the ermB gene from porcine E.faecalis to human E.faecalis and vice versa is possible.but probably occurs at a low frequency.