ORIGINAL ARTICLE Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences/ Volume 2/ Issue 8/ February 25, 2013 Page-960 PREVALENCE, IDENTIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS ENTEROCOCCAL SPECIES ISOLATED IN KATIHAR DISTRICT, BIHAR WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO VRE. Priyanka Paul Biswas, Sangeeta Dey, Luna Adhikary, Aninda Sen, Udayan Ganguly, Umesh 1. Assistant Professor. Department of Microbiology, Katihar Medical College, Katihar. 2. Professor & HOD. Department of Microbiology, Katihar Medical College, Katihar. 3. Professor. Department of Microbiology, Sikkim Manipal University, Gangtok. 4. Professor. Department of Microbiology, Katihar Medical College, Katihar. 5. Professor. Department of Microbiology, Katihar Medical College, Katihar. 6. Associate Professor. Department of Microbiology, Government Medical College, Haldwani. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Mrs. Priyanka Paul Biswas, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Katihar Medical College, Karim Bagh, Katihar. Bihar 854105 E-mail: priyankaonli@yahoo.in Ph: 0091 8544036075 ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Identification of enterococci to species level in order to determine the species prevalent in this geographic region and also to determine the species-specific antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. OBJECTIVE: To detect and determine glycopeptide resistance by screening for vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in both colonized and infected patients. METHODS: A total of 123 isolates of enterococcus species were recovered from various clinical and faecal samples of hospitalized patients, from September 2010 to June 2011. Various species of enterococci were identified by standard methods. Vancomycin susceptibility in enterococci was detected by disc diffusion method (DDM), vancomycin screen agar method (VSAM) and agar dilution method to determine minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). RESULTS: E. faecalis was the predominant isolate from the clinical and faecal samples. Multidrug resistance was more in E. faecium than E. faecalis. MIC method could detect 7 VRE and 27 strains with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. Disk diffusion test and vancomycin screen agar failed to detect 50 % and 29.4% of resistant strains respectively. CONCLUSION: Vancomycin resistance was also detected in less virulent strains of enterococcus like E. gallinarum and E. dispar. In laboratories where performance of MIC studies is not feasible, VSAM method should be preferred over the DDM for detection of vancomycin resistance in enterococci. KEY WORDS: Enterococcus species, vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE), multi drug resistant enterococci (MDRE) INTRODUCTION: Although considered benign and opportunistic pathogens, Enterococci have long been known to cause endocarditis in hospitalized patients. Their resistance to several antimicrobial agents, whether intrinsic (low level resistance to penicillin, cephalosporins and aminoglycosides) or acquired ((high level aminoglycoside resistance) is of great concern. (1) This increasing prevalence has been paralleled by the occurrence of vancomycin-resistant strains, which were first reported in 1988. (2) Recently VRE and MDRE have emerged as a leading cause