Detection of vanA genes in vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus faecium isolates: implications for additional testing

Victoria Jordan; Hemalatha Varadhan

doi:10.1099/acmi.0.000959.v4

Detection of vanA genes in vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus faecium isolates: implications for additional testing

Access Microbiol. 2025 Apr 1;7(4):000959.v4. doi: 10.1099/acmi.0.000959.v4. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Victoria Jordan^{1

2}, Hemalatha Varadhan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, NSW Health Pathology, John Hunter Hospital, New Lambton Heights, NSW 2305, Australia.
² School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.

Abstract

To assess the frequency of silent vancomycin resistance, phenotypically susceptible Enterococcus faecium isolates underwent genotypic testing using Cepheid's Xpert vanA/vanB PCR. A total of 6% of isolates had silent vanA genes. However, the clinical relevance of silent van genes and the lack of rapid, random-access genotypic methods poses an ongoing challenge to laboratories.

Keywords: vanA; vanB; vancomycin-resistance Enterococci; vancomycin-variable Enterococci.