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Hello everyone.
My name is Dr. Sarah Fouch.
Within this talk,
we will be considering
Enterococcus species.
We will think about
the types of infection
associated with the
most common enterococci
and the virulence
factors produced to
enable them to be
successful pathogens.
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Enterococci are
gram-positive organisms.
They are facultatively
anaerobic,
which means that they
have the ability to
grow in the presence
or absence of oxygen.
They are also halotolerant,
which means that they can grow
in increased levels of
sodium chloride or salt.
This enables them to survive
in environments where other
organisms may suffer.
When considering the
temperature range
in which enterococci
can survive,
they are referred
to as mesophilic,
surviving in a range
between 10-40°C.
Now this is quite nice
because, obviously, body
temperature is 37°C.
That's why they are
a human pathogen.
Interestingly, if we think about
the area that enterococci
like to colonise,
this will be the
gastrointestinal tract
of both humans and animals.
Enterococci will form part of
the normal
gastrointestinal flora.
You can now see why the
temperature range and
the ability to survive
in higher levels of
salinity is important,
as salinity levels
will vary depending
on the area of the GI tract
that the organism is colonising.
There are a number
of enterococci
that are associated
with human infections.
However, the two most
common species are
Enterococcus faecalis, commonly
found as a normal flora
in the human
gastrointestinal tract,
and Enterococcus faecium,
also found as a normal
intestinal flora,
however, also associated with
antimicrobial resistance.
We have some other species
of enterococci as well.
Those two are the ones that
we're mostly going to see in
the laboratory environment.
But other species include:
Enterococcus hirae,
mostly associated
with the gastrointestinal
tracts of cattle,
Enterococcus durans and
Enterococcus gallinarum.
These also cause
human infections as
Enterococcus faecalis or
Enterococcus faecium.
The last enterococci we
have here is casseliflavus.
This is more often
associated with plants.
However, it can cause
problems in humans,
but they're very rare again.
We've already discussed
that enterococci
