{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T19:55:54Z","timestamp":1787169354824,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,12]],"date-time":"2024-01-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1705017600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006114","name":"S\u00e4chsisches Staatsministerium f\u00fcr Wissenschaft, Kultur and Tourismus","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["100535976"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["100535976"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006114","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Vancomycin-resistant (VR) Enterococcus spp. can be detected in high concentrations in wastewaters and pose a risk to public health. During a one-year study (September 2022\u2013August 2023), 24 h composite raw wastewater samples (n = 192) of a municipal wastewater treatment plant were investigated for cultivable enterococci. After growth on Slanetz\u2013Bartley agar (SBA), a mean concentration of 29,736 \u00b1 9919 cfu\/mL was calculated. Using MALDI-TOF MS to characterize randomly picked colonies (n = 576), the most common species were found to be Enterococcus faecium (72.6%), E. hirae (13.7%), and E. faecalis (8.0%). Parallel incubation of wastewater samples on SBA and VRESelect agar resulted in a mean rate of VR enterococci of 2.0 \u00b1 1.5%. All the tested strains grown on the VRESelect agar (n = 172) were E. faecium and carried the vanA (54.6%) or vanB gene (45.4%) with limited sequence differences. In susceptibility experiments, these isolates showed a high-level resistance to vancomycin (&gt;256 \u00b5g\/mL). Concentration of vancomycin was determined in 93.7% of 112 wastewater samples (mean: 123.1 \u00b1 64.0 ng\/L) and varied between below 100 ng\/L (the detection limit) and 246.6 ng\/L. A correlation between the concentration of vancomycin and the rate of VR strains among the total enterococci could not be found. The combination of incubation of samples on SBA and a commercial vancomycin-containing agar applied in clinical microbiology with a multiplex PCR for detection of van genes is an easy-to-use tool to quantify and characterize VR Enterococcus spp. in water samples.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms12010149","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,12]],"date-time":"2024-01-12T03:54:34Z","timestamp":1705031674000},"page":"149","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Enterococci, Van Gene-Carrying Enterococci, and Vancomycin Concentrations in the Influent of a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Southeast Germany"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0265-8490","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Geissler","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Medical Microbiology and Virology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Percy","family":"Schr\u00f6ttner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Medical Microbiology and Virology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany"},{"name":"Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Reinhard","family":"Oertel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6351-8817","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roger","family":"Dumke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Medical Microbiology and Virology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Parkins, M.D., Lee, B.E., Acosta, N., Bautista, M., Hubert, C.R.J., Hrudey, S.E., Frankowski, K., and Pang, X.-L. 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