Detection of carbapenem resistance and virulence genes among Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from hospital environments in center of Iran

Abstract

Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii are the top urgent antibiotic resistance threat in the world. The aims of this study were the determination of carbapenem-resistant genes and virulence genes among isolates from hospital environments. In this study, A. baumannii isolated from hospital environments and evaluated its antibiotic resistance, virulence factors, and resistance genes. Of 258 samples, 58 showed growth of the target organism. Antibiotic susceptibility test results considered all the A. baumannii to be multidrug-resistant isolates with the highest resistance being 36.2% to ciprofloxacin; while the most effective antibiotics with 98.3% susceptibility was piperacillin-tazobactam. Of these 58 hospital environment isolates, 18 isolates were positive for Metallo beta-lactamase. Overall, 65% of the isolates from hospital environments had many virulence factors. PCR assays demonstrated the highest and lowest positive results in csgA and cvaC gene among hospital environment isolates. Results indicate that the determination of carbapenem-resistant genes and virulence genes among isolates from hospital environments is very important.