08.07.2016

Eurosurveillance, Volume 21, Issue 27, 07 July 2016

Belgian researchers report the discovery of a novel plasmid-mediated colistin-resistance gene in porcine and bovine colistin-resistant Escherichia coli that did not contain mcr-1. The gene, termed mcr-2, has 76.7% nucleotide identity to mcr-1 (80.65% proteins identity). MCR-1 gene, was first identified in E coli samples in China in late 2015 and has now been detected in 30 countries. Phylogenetic analysis showed that MCR-2 might have originated from Moraxella catarrhalis. These data call for an immediate introduction of mcr-2 screening in ongoing molecular epidemiological surveillance of colistin-resistant Gram-negative pathogens.