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Enterococcus faecalis, though opportunistic pathogen has emerged as one of the leading nosocomial pathogens and has been implicated in different human infections. The severity of the infections caused by this organism is largely due to its complex pathogenic process. The objective of this study was to determine the carriage of virulence factors and vanA gene among the strains of vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis isolated from hospitals. Standard methods were used for isolation, antibiotic susceptibility and detection of virulence factors in the isolates. A total of one hundred and twenty three (123) samples were screened out of which 69 (45.70 %) yielded E. faecalis. The highest percentage of the isolates was recovered from the environment followed by the clinical samples. Children surgical ward had the highest occurrence of the test organism followed by male surgical ward. All the isolates were resistant to both amoxycillin/clavulanic acid and ceftazidime, while 98.55%, 89.86% and 53.62% were resistant to ampicillin, cefuroxime and gentamicin respectively. Only twenty seven (39.13%) of the isolates were resistant to the vancomycin. Among the vancomycin-resistant isolates, haemolysin had the highest occurrence (60.29%) followed by caseinase (55.88%). A total of 16 (59.26%) were beta-lactamase positive while 8 (29.63%) out of the isolates (vancomycin-resistant) were non-biofilm former while vanA genes was detected in 9 (33.33%) of the isolates. This study gives an insight to antibiotic resistant pattern of circulating Enterococcus faecalis and also the isolate showed varying patterns of virulent factors.

Disinfection of water is important in the control of waterborne diseases. It is used to kill or inactivate microorganisms in a gradual process that involves a number of physical-chemical and biochemical processes. The effects of sub-lethal gamma irradiation on survival and resistant pattern of two indicator organisms used in assessing water quality: Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli were investigated in this study. Plate count agar and disc diffusion methods were used to determine the load and antibiotics susceptibility pattern of the test organisms respectively before and after exposure to different doses of gamma irradiation in sachet water samples. Survival pattern of the two indicator organisms to gammaray showed a decline in the populations of the organisms with time compared to the controls (non-radiated). The effect of the irradiation on the E. coli was dose dependent, it initially responded to the effects of the irradiation in the first 4 days of exposure compared to the control. On exposure to 4 and 5 gy gamma rays a minimum population was reached on the 7 th day. At p<0.05 the population of E. coli was significantly different from the control. The survival pattern of Ent. faecalis also followed a similar growth pattern. The application sub-lethal gamma irradiation did reduce the population of the isolates and also affect the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates.

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