Diversity of vanA-type vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolated from broilers, poultry slaughterers and hospitalized humans in Greece

Abstract

A remarkable persistence of VREF was observed in the broiler production environment even >10 years after the avoparcin ban. Human and broiler VREF belonged to clearly unrelated populations, strongly indicating no clonal spread of VREF among the different sources, even between broilers and poultry slaughterers, despite them sharing common ARPs, as also supported by DA.