Identification of a novel plasmid mediated colistin resistance gene, mcr 2, in Escherichia coli, Belgium, June 2016.
We identified 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, a 1,617 bp phosphoethanolamine transferase harboured on an IncX4 plasmid, has 76.7% nucleotide identity to mcr 1. Prevalence of mcr 2 in porcine colistin resistant E. coli (11/53) in Belgium was higher than that of mcr 1 (7/53) These data call for an immediate introduction of mcr 2 screening in ongoing molecular epidemiological surveillance of colistin resistant Gram negative pathogens.
Euro surveillance bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles European communicable disease bulletin