The prevalence of enterotoxin and antibiotic resistance genes in clinical and intestinal Bacteroides fragilis group isolates in Turkey

• 25 clinical and 25 intestinal Bacteroides fragilis group isolates were assessed.
• Antibiotic resistance and bft gene were tested by agar dilution and PCR.
• Some discordance was found between phenotypical and genetic resistance.
• No susceptibility difference was detected between clinical and intestinal isolates.

This study was conducted to measure the antibiotic susceptibilities, corresponding gene contents, and the enterotoxin gene bft, in 50 Bacteroides fragilis group isolates, 25 of which were clinical and 25 intestinal. The resistance rates to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, imipenem and metronidazole were low; ampicillin and tetracyclin resistance was high; clindamycin resistance and ermF gene presence was also high. Regarding phenotypical bacterial resistance and the presence of resistance genes, there was not statistically significant difference between clinical and intestinal isolates and bft positive and negative isolates.