Resistance to apramycin in two enterobacterial clinical isolates: detection of a 3-N-acetyltransferase IV.

Considering the possible role of farm animals in the contamination of human consumers by plasmid-mediated apramycin-resistant enterobacteria strains, this type of resistance should be tested more systematically in human isolates. Very recently we isolated in Zaragoza one apramycin-resistant Escheria coli strain obtained from the blood of a hospitalized patient; this clinical isolate produced a plasmid-mediated 3-N-aminoglycoside acetyltransferase IV. We describe also the isolation in Madrid of one multiresistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical strain. This isolate harbored a single plasmid and carried determinants for apramycin, gentamicin, tobramycin, hygromycin B, streptomycin, and ampicillin, which could be transferred en bloc to E. coli K-12 J62. Extracts from donor and transconjugant strains carrying pUZ6776 plasmid produce acetyltransferase activity AAC(3)-IV and double phosphotransferase activity (HPH and APH(3'')).