12 F 85 69 29 50 0 14 162 1.90 SHV 12 10 9 6 0 1 26 2.16 CTX-M 73 59 20 44 0 13 136 1.87   FII 49 40 1 32 0 1 74 1.51    CTX-M-15 48         1       FII-FIB 4 2 1 2 0 0 5 1.25    SHV-2a 1 0 0 0 0 0        CTX-M-15 3 2 1 2 0 0       FII-FIA-FIB 18 15 14 11 0 9 49 2.72    SHV-12

3 3 2 3   0        CTX-M-15 15 12 12 9   9       FII-FIA 9 8 8 3 0 4 23 2.55    SHV-12 5 5 4 1   1        CTX-M-15 4 3 4 2   3       FIA-FIB 5 4 5 2 0 0 11 2.20    SHV-12 3 2 3 2            CTX-M15 2 2 2 0         a pemKI: CTX-M vs SHV, p < 0.001; CTX-M-15 vs other ESBLs, selleck chemical p < 0.001. f ccdAB: IncF vs other plasmids, p < 0.001. g hok-sok: IncF vs other plasmids, p < 0.001. h vagCD: IncF vs other plasmids, p = 0.08, vagCD: IncF and IncI1 vs other plasmids, Luminespib in vivo p = 0.01. i Mean: IncF vs other plasmids, p < 0.001. Discussion This study provides molecular-epidemiological data on ESBL-carrying E. coli isolated in the clinical setting of the two university hospitals of Sfax in Tunisia, in the end of the eighties and the 2000s. This study demonstrates a temporal shift in the prevalence

of ESBL types (Figure 1). Thus the CTX-M-type ESBLs have clearly been predominant during the last decade, as has been described worldwide [1, 2]. The SHV-2 was the first ESBL to be isolated, in 1984 from a Klebsiella pneumoniae isolate in Tunisia [10]. Until the late 1990s, SHV enzymes, especially SHV-12 and SHV-2a, were the most common

ESBLs frequently associated with K. pneumoniae involved in nosocomial outbreaks in many Tunisian hospitals including our hospital [10, 15, 23]. In the 2000s, the prevalence of CTX-M increased steadily especially CTX-M-15 type, whereas that of SHV Citarinostat purchase decreased dramatically. In fact, all the 29 studied E. coli isolates in 2009 were producing CTX-M-15 ESBL, 2 of these were co-producing SHV-12 ESBL. In accordance with previous reports on distribution of ESBL in Enterobacteriaceae, performed in Tunisia and worldwide, we have shown that the CTX-M-15 ESBL was the most prevalent ESBL Montelukast Sodium in our setting [1, 2, 12–15]. Recent reports indicate that worldwide dissemination of CTX-M-15 is mediated by clonally related E. coli strains, especially a specific clone of phylogroup B2, ST131 [3, 4, 24]. Accordingly, in the present study, 24/101 (23.7%) of the CTX-M-15-producing strains belonged to clone ST131. E. coli ST131 was previously reported in Tunisia in different hospitals since 2005 [13, 14, 24, 25]. One of the Tunisian studies performed in Sousse from May 2005 to May 2006 identified clone ST131 in 23/31 (74%) of CTX-M-15-producing E. coli and showed that these 23 isolates had the same pulsotype and the same virulence genotype [14].