Journal: Veterinary Sciences

Article Title: Isolation and Characterization of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium from Cattle: Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence Genes, and Pathogenicity

doi: 10.3390/vetsci12090880

Figure Lengend Snippet: Identification and molecular characterization of E. faecium isolates. ( A ) Colony morphology on Enterococcus-selective agar showing brown-black colonies with brown halos. ( B ) Colony morphology on blood agar with small, round, slightly raised, grayish-white, translucent colonies. ( C ) Gram staining showing Gram-positive cocci, occurring singly or in pairs. ( D ) PCR amplification of the ddl gene showing a 176 bp product specific to E. faecium ; Lanes 1–3 in correspond to isolates SCQ3, SCQ4, and SCQ11, respectively. ( E ) 16S rRNA gene amplification producing an approximately 1500 bp band; Lanes 1–3 in correspond to isolates to SCQ3, SCQ4, and SCQ11, respectively. ( F ) Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree constructed using MEGA X from aligned 16S rRNA sequences, illustrating genetic relationships between isolates and reference E. faecium strains from NCBI. Bootstrap values (n = 1000 replicates) shown at branches; scale bar indicates evolutionary distance.

Article Snippet: Cultures were then streaked onto Pfizer enterococcus selective agar plates (Pfizer Inc., Shanghai, China) and incubated at 37 °C for 18–24 h. Colonies appeared as brown/black with brown halos, and the colony morphology was observed and recorded.

Techniques: Staining, Amplification, Construct